Writing Down the Dream

I’ve been working on several projects through the course of this year, and I have buried myself in notebooks because I prefer to write first drafts in longhand.  That means I haven’t been blogging much. Call me old-fashioned, but when you write best at night while your dear spouse is trying to sleep, the scritch of my pencil is much less disturbing to him than the clicking of my keyboard.  Besides, it uses no electricity and requires no cords.  Imagine the freedom!

Anyway, here’s the dream:  In the coming months, I want to be rounding out the memoir-ish book I’ve been working on and getting it to “finished.”  I plan on doing this in approximately 3 months.  What will happen to it after then, I am not sure, but I have high hopes.  I want to get it published.  That’s always the dream, right?  I want it to be a best seller!  I want it to be the book that opens the door to the writer’s life (which means I could quit my day job to be a writer full time).

In the meantime, I need to give myself some challenges in the form of exercises to get me writing on a more daily basis and in a more creative way.  Memoir is easy to do, but hard to make interesting, I think.  I am trying to be funny in this work, so I have been making fun of myself a lot.  I think I need to take it to another level, though.

So, today’s exercise is the “Three Times a Charm.”

First Time:  Write for 15 minutes about an event that happened (for me this is going to be something along the lines of a “The most embarrassing moment for me was when…” kind of event.

Second Time:  Write for another 15 minutes about the same event.  Write the event from the perspective of an outsider.  If this event involved other people, write the same interaction from their point of view (and if no one was involved, what would someone have thought if they were just watching you from a distance?).  Try to remove your internal perspective and get into the other person’s mind.  Were they mortified by what happened, as well, or were they just laughing at your buffoonery?

Third Time:  Write for a final 15 minutes about the same event.  This time, focus on the mortifying detail that made the event so embarrassing (or any detail surrounding the topic you are writing about).  Play up the suspense, leading up to that “oh no” moment.  Try to remember what you thought was going to happen and your reaction to what actually happened.  Capture that in thought-by-thought fashion.  What was the actual outcome of the whole thing, now that you have the perspective of time and distance?

Finalize:  Come back to this tomorrow and read each one.  Take the pieces you like the best and blend them together for the final episodic memory.

Good luck, y’all!

 

 

The 100 Day Project Kick-off (one day late)

Over in Instagram world, there’s this lovely thing taking place.  Starting on April 6th, people all over the world have committed to doing some creative something for the next 100 days.  This #100dayproject (that’s the tag in instagram) came to life from a partnership between  Elle Luna & The Great Discontent (a quarterly print pub and online magazine).

So, I am taking part, and I think you should give it a shot, too.  I am, of course, writing.  Of course!  I’m so happy to participate in “challenges” these days, I think I must be revisiting my old competitive tendencies from grade school.  Hm.  Not sure that is a good thing.  What IS good is the fact that such challenges make me stick to something longer than I normally would.  For whatever reason.  Probably because I am a recovering “straight A” student.

Anyway…here’s how I started.

I have this book in mind.  It’s something of a memoir mash-up with a food book/humor…it’s hard to explain. Anyway, so I brainstormed 120 prompts for this book with basic ideas I intend to cover anyway.  And then I must write about one of them each night for 100 nights.  The first one was “Drastic Times.”  Then you take some sort of picture to represent your work and share it on Instagram with the #100dayproject hashtag.  This was mine.

If you get overwhelmed with big things looming over your head (like…I dunno…writing a book), this might be one way to find a pathway into that project by tackling it in small pieces.  The brainstorming step is like leaving breadcrumbs for yourself, and writing each prompt out is like following them back home.  Hopefully, if you run into a witch who wants to eat you, a fierce woodsman will come to your rescue.  Or something like that.

Good luck, y’all!

Sticky idea 90: tell your tale

Ooh! A writing exercise…so simple, and yet so potentially engulfing/confounding! Good luck, y’all!

Darryl Garland

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Flashbacking

Inspiration comes from the strangest places. I often have flashbacks throughout the day to random memories and times in my life that seem to come completely out of nowhere. I let myself ponder through the things I remember about that moment before I snap back to the present and wonder, “why am I thinking about this?”  Sometimes, it’s just the meanderings of memory that take me to that day in high school when I was put in charge of entering fruit orders into the computer for the FFA fund raiser.  Not that I was one of the “jacket wearing” FFA members, but I did participate in our “field day” demonstrations by churning butter in a series of jars with a sweet, sandy-haired farm boy who was almost too shy to talk to me.  What was his name?  I don’t know.  I only remember that he liked NASCAR and blushed when I teased him about being too handsome to not have a girlfriend.  See?  Why the heck was I thinking about entering fruit orders for the FFA fundraiser?

I’ve been working more regularly on a novel this summer, but I’ve been reluctant to share my progress with friends. I have the odd preference of writing in longhand for my first drafts, which means my “second draft” happens when I enter the writing into the computer.  I’ve started the second draft process, but I can tell the writing is missing something.  I need to add to it to make the situation believable, to make the character seem more like a real person, and to move the plot along without it feeling like it’s dragging.  I have the old pang of self-doubt that strikes when I start struggling with a project, but I’m dedicated to working through it.  But how?

My character is 18.  She’s in the summer between high school and college.  And she is in the middle of dealing with a moment of intense family turmoil.  How do I bring this girl to life?  How do I tell the reader who she is without banging them on the head with a list of likes and dislikes?  And how do I do this without making the long-form fiction feel like it’s crawling at a snail’s pace?

Then came the a-ha moment!  With a flashback, of course.  OF COURSE!  Why haven’t I thought of flashbacking (which may or may not be a “real” word) before now?  She is not far away from being in high school, so I have to tap into my own “yesteryear” memories to remember the angst of being that age again, being in the midst of a major life transition, and how to deal with complicated relationships between siblings and parents and grandparents.  But, she is not me, so I must invent a past for her.  I *can* use my own mental wanderings to populate her past, though.

I remember when I was a little kid, I really thought I was a badass.  It was a freer, more dangerous time, I guess, in retrospect.  I played in half-constructed homes as new portions of my neighborhood were developed.  One of those houses was a two-story house–a rarity in the land of one-story ranch-style homes.  During an intense game of chase with two boys who were older than me (boys who kept calling me a “baby” and a “girl” like it was a slur and not just a fact of genetics), I jumped from the second-story window of the newly framed house, daring them to follow me.  They did not.  I remember laughing at the looks on their faces.  They were looking down at me from the window, stunned that I had jumped from so high.  I was all of 5 and fearless and had legs made of rubber.  Ah, how sweet was that victory!  I decided to give my character the same sense of “I’ll show you” daring.

 

Exercise:

Take 10-15 minutes to write down one of your childhood memories.  Try to remember as much as you can, especially sensory memories and the way you felt, emotionally.  After you’ve captured the essence of that memory, use the same “feeling” to write a new scene for your character.  You can frame it as a flashback to your character’s childhood, or not.  Maybe you have a character who is a child, so it could happen in “real time.”  Maybe you’re character has a child.  It can be translated in so many ways.  Maybe it will inspire a piece of non-fiction.  Maybe you won’t want to change the scene at all–you know how us writers are–always stealing from real life to tell our stories.  That’s what they mean when they say, “write what you know,” right?

Happy writing!

Do a Little Dance, Make a Little Love

Spring is here (or right around the corner, I promise)!

And what does that mean?  It means that everything is waking up and feeling frisky!

Why not have your character(s) interact with this transition of the seasons from cold and gray to blustery and bright?  Have your most curmudgeonly character experience an awakening, an enlightening of the spirit that comes with blooming flowers and birds singing in the mornings–maybe even feeling young again?

Or have your youngest character fly a kite, dig up worms, or roll down a hill of fresh green grass.  Or have a character who is “coming of age” experience the utter gleeful hopefulness that comes with realizing the potential hijinks to be had during spring break.  And continue writing those hijinks with afore-mentioned dancing and love-making.

Of course, Spring isn’t only a time of sweet, warm weather.  If your character (or you) can’t bear too much happy, or if it just doesn’t work with your story, go for the tumult of storms, surprise snows, terrifying winds, and the possibility of floods that comes with the seasonal defrost.

The key here is capturing the experience of the season while it is happening right outside your window.  I apologize if Spring hasn’t arrived on your doorstep yet, but even just the longing for Spring can stir up that craving to “wake up” again from the cold.  To feel what it’s like to walk barefoot on freshly thawed earth.  To catch the heady fragrance of flowers in bloom.

So, take the challenge and put those desires into the hearts of your characters and see what they do with the urges of Spring!

Starting Up Again – Time to Write

Hey all!

I got married! Woo hoo! So glad THAT’s over…

SO…now it’s time to start writing again. I don’t know what it is about winter and colder weather and holiday vibes that make my brain go crazy with ideas, but here they are again. It’s like a cocktail party in my head what with all of these characters bouncing around and trying to tell their stories over each other.

So, I’ve devised a plan. A writing exercise based on this cocktail party idea. I really just want a way to tease out the characters, make them less like an amorphous, cacophonous crowd, and more like solid individuals.

First: Name each character with a full name (and if you are so inspired, explain why this person is this person, a la “Her mom and dad had met at the Starlight Diner, and so, logically named their firstborn child after the waitress who served them: Cleo.”)

Second: What is your character drinking at this cocktail party, if anything? Cleo likes Jack & Coke.

Third: What is the character wearing…party attire or “regular” clothes? Just make the clothing true to the character’s style or lack thereof.

Fourth: What would your character be doing at this party? Hiding in a corner, laughing the loudest, earnestly discussing the Superbowl prospects of her favorite team, getting drunk for drunk’s sake…?

And now that you have all of this fodder, try to focus in on these characters in pairs. They can be from different stories, even, but let them have a conversation. What would they talk about? What would the character share about his/her life with a person from a different story? What would they say about their own stories?

I am really excited to do this one! I can hear the glasses clinking and the smokers heading outside, and the one who MUST tell the story of the trip they took to Africa, and the one who is rustling through the coats…

Cheers! And good luck!

Another Ending…Writing sdrawkcaB

I have this short story I want to submit to a the Austin Chronicle short story contest.  It’s not finished.  The deadline is SOON!

So, to force myself through to that ending, here’s the exercise I’m going to try:

Writing the ending I want first and then write backwards from there.  This exercise makes the writing more like solving a logic problem, or even a maze, but sometimes taking things out of chronological order gives you the freedom to write without thinking about “how am I going to get there?”

Of course, I will need to reorder what I come up with, and I will also probably need to do some severe editing after the fact…the word limit for this contest is 2500 words.  I am usually much more verbose in my stories…5000 word limits can be a challenge for me.

Since I know I have this limit, though, I think I am going to try another writing tactic–this one from from high school…writing on index cards.  This can help solve the non-chronological problem, too, because not only will the index card put a boundary on what I am writing, it can help with the “moving things around” aspect of reorganizing.

I am looking forward to this puzzle now.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Last Day of Summer = Endings

My current favorite swimming hole

I am a fan of summer.  Mainly because I don’t like being cold.  Of course, I live in Texas, so I’ve chosen well.  I also like to swim in natural bodies of water and at McKinney Falls, it’s deep enough and big enough, and usually not so crowded, that I can actually swim laps (or more commonly, float and doggy paddle around). Going to a place like this also affords me a good place to contemplate writing.  So on this day, the last day of summer, I went to my swimming hole and paddled around for a good hour or so, thinking and trying my best to let go of the stress of the work week.

I was thinking about the ending of my last story. In all honesty, I hate it.  But I went ahead and used it to be done with the first draft.  This is, of course, ridiculously lame and lazy.  I mean, what was I thinking?  The good thing is…I can always change it whenever I want.  So, I decided I needed to come up with an exercise for  the ending.

So, here’s what I am going to do.  1. Brainstorm.  This is a pretty obvious move.  But I didn’t do it before, so I’m going to do it now.  2. WHEN I brainstorm, the object is going to be…discovering the non-obvious.  I need to be true to the characters, but I want a twist.  So far, there is no twist.  But I don’t want a gimmick.  But I am going to USE a gimmick to get to the ending I want.  Remember those “choose your own adventure” books from childhood?  These were seriously popular in the mid-80s when I was a kid.  I LOVED to choose my own adventure.  So, for this exercise, 3. I am going to “write out” about six endings.  I know this might seem excessive, but what I hope this will allow me to do is to read each ending with these different options, just so I can see what they feel like.  And if I can cut it down to three different endings, I will share these with my trusted writing buds so they can have their say.  Obviously this is going to be an exercise in writing more than I will ever use, but…it seems necessary.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

And, if you need inspiration, may I suggest taking a nice walk out in the world, or going for a nice swim to help you think?

So Close, I Can Taste It

Given the fact that I am calling out my near-completion of a short story about a stripper, the title of this blog is probably too suggestive.  But, oh well.

So, I am nearly done with that dang story, Church of the Palomino.  I only have one small “setting the scene” for transition, a few small details to add about Shannon’s family, and the grand finale of the ending.  I at least know where I want to take it, but I keep tip-toeing around that ending.  Man, it’s so hard for me!

I am trying to come up with a writing exercise that is going to help me write that “setting the scene” part and the ending.  I think, when I really get to the editing phase, I will sprinkle in those crumbs of family info. 

So, to sort of borrow a suggestion from a friend–I’m going to twist the exercise to serve my own purposes–since I know where I want to go with this, I am going to visualize a “photo” of the ending.  For the exercise, I am going to first, write what happened right before this picture was taken, then I am going to write the moment captured by the “photo,” and then I am going to write “what happened next,” right after the picture was taken.  Of course, no one is going to be in my story taking a photo of my characters, so it is going to require a vivid imagination, but whatevs…I’ve got one of THOSE.  For yourself, you might try this with a literal photo or painting.  Good luck!

Thanks, Kristen, for the idea!

From Rolling Stone to Touchstones

Man, a million ideas have occurred to me in the past few days.  Nothing related to the story at hand, though.  Of course. 

So this is why I do writing exercises…trying to force my way back into the story I am trying to finish.  I also have a lot of terrible “in a minute” habits to ramp myself up into a night of writing.  This, unfortunately, when I am serious and when I have the funds, means I gravitate toward the stereotypical vices of writers…smokes and drinks.  I don’t know why.  I’ve never been a “smoker,” but I do enjoy a good cigar every now and then.  So, last night was cigar night, followed by a cocktail.  It seemed especially appropo, considering my story takes place at a strip club.

Anyway, while I puffed away under the almost full moon, I couldn’t help but notice the stones (rocks, pebbles, whatever you want to call them), shining in the moonlight.  And I thought about picking up one or two for keeping.  And I thought about how many of us, across all sorts of cultures, probably collected rocks at some point in our life.  A friend once gave me a book called “The Finding Stone” about the sacred specialness of finding a particular stone.  I have moved with boxes of rocks.  I have a rock on my window sill right now that I kept as a memento from where I buried one of my dogs. 

I imagine that we overlook something as simple as a rock perhaps twenty times a day.  Sometimes you might absently kick one along for a while as you walk down the street or in a parking lot somewhere.   Should you find yourself at the edge of some water, you might find yourself skipping stones on the water, or just chunking them in to hear the kerplunk or test your throwing distance.  Maybe you have cursed a stone for cracking your windshield.  Or maybe like me, you have thanked that mystery stone you feared might hit your windshield, but by avoiding it, you avoided certain catastrophe.  I even wrote a story entitled “Pretty Stones” for my Master’s thesis.

So, I figured it might be a decent excercise to have an exercise featuring a stone.  You could have a character pick one up for whatever reason.  You could have a stone become a plot point ( a la windshield cracker).  You could have a character go in search of a particular kind of stone, or merely find one in the pocket of an old coat.  The options are limitless.  All you have to do is place the stone…