The voice within

Just a final post to say goodbye to this wonderful semester.

My final author wrote a chapter on finding your voice, How I Discovered the Voice - or rather, How the Voice Discovered Me. That's what this class has helped me to do, find and listen to the writer's voice that I have always had.

Thanks to all for sharing voice and listening to my voice!

Final Blog

A few days late, but I wanted to finish this book before my last post. And to be honest, the first few chapters in the book, I really liked their points of view on certain aspects of writing. But towards the end I didn't feel like I was getting as much out of it. But I still think Ellen Gilchrist said it best about writing. Some of the few key phrases that stick out in my mind are, "Writing is Rewriting," "Writers read," "Just write what comes to mind," "you're allowed to have a shitty first draft," the list goes on and on. But I think there is something I have learned in class that is even more important than the act of writing. I think having confidence about whatever you write about is one of the top few things about writing. I dread and I mean dread reading my work out loud due to the fact I'd rather write and leave it on paper. I just don't have the most confidence in what I write especially after hearing all the talent we have in class. But really this class has made me face it and I think that is the most important thing to have when it comes to your writing. Anyone can write, but I think it takes more to read your own work or let other people read yours. And I think that is the most valuable thing I take away from this class. So thank you.

Finally

Well, I'm about to finish my book, The Spiral Staircase, by Karen Armstrong, and frankly there's nothing much in there as far as tips about writing. Toward the end, however, she says something that I thought quite appropo to what we have been learning. Her book is about her travels through finding herself after having spent 7 yrs. as a nun, and after Googling her I find that she has written several books about different religions. Her quote which touched me follows.

"Like the words of a poem, a religious idea, myth, or doctrine points beyond itself to truths that are elusive, that resist words and conceptualization. If you seize upon a poem and try to extort its meaning before you are ready, it remains opaque. If you bring your own personal agenda to bear upon it, the poem will close upon itself like a clam, because you have denied its unique and separate identity, its own inviolable holiness. I found this to be true in my study of literature. As soon as I had stopped trying to use it to advance my career, it began to speak to me again. Now I was having the exact same experience with theology."

Maybe sometimes we try too hard instead of letting things just evolve to a point we're ready to absorb and understand them. Of course, when "Teacher" says "do it," you can't always wait for the "aha" moment. OUR teacher has been very flexible about letting us do things at our own pace, and that is very much appreciated! Thank you, Kim.

last blog

As this course is coming to a close this will be the last blog. My last blog will be different from the rest. It will include not only something from the book, but also somethings that I have learned throughout this course from the classroom.

The end of the book speaks about style in great degree. It says that "writint at high speed is usually a good thing. " It further says, "It suggest enthusiasm, confidence and knowing what you want to say." I agree with that. When you write and you can do it at a high pace then you really know what you want to say and the energy is flowing. I have found that when I am really working on an assignement and have thought about it and know what I want to say, then I am able to write it and have the thoughts keeps coming to me. However, on the reverse end when I am having a hard time it is hard to get into any kind of pace.

If anyone has anything to say and writes about it is a writer. I believe that a writer is simply is person that writes. Now there are things that seperate writers but on average any person who writes can be a writer. The most important aspect of writting to me is to just get whatever you want to say on paper and then go from there.

Bird by Bird

Dialogue...Dialogue...Dialogue....the importance of Dialogue...how great art thee??? Lamont definitely believes that dialogue plays a big part to becoming a good writer. When doing your writing...your dialogue should have a voice to it that readers can hear. She said that, "in the right hands, dialogue can move things along in a way that will leave you breathless." Lamott says to help you along with your dialogue you should listen to all the conversations from people who are around you. Also you should be able to identify each of your characters from their dialogue. Not saying that this will happen overnight, but you definitely should put ur time and effort into it.

This was definitely useful to me because in a sense, what advice she gave, I've already began to do so. Its fun for me to make characters and not so much describe them, but let your dialogue tell the tale of who they are.

I love this story . . .

Check out this link: http://www.slate.com/id/2292099/pagenum/all

Found this on slate.com. A writer that uses his wife to edit his work and they are still married and in love! LOL.

Thanks to Ellen

I have always wondered what makes a good writer. I have also always wondered if one persons eccentricity could help or hinder what they write. The similarities in Ellen's personality and mine are scarry. Please do not misinterpret my intention. Our personalities are very similar in that when she is totally focused on something, everything else is secondary, and she talks about the ways to get to that point. Truly, she dives into her writing and her focus isn't sidetracked by anyone or anything. To tap into this kind of dicipline isn't easy but I believe she gave me the right direction to go in order to achieve this kind of centerd focus. THe five main points that has helped me immensely , and that I owe total gratitude to Ellen are:
1. To sometimes break the rules a bit, because that is where creativity can sometimes strike an awsome and critical point in writing.Another words, something great can happen outside of the box and that is really where it originates.
2. Ellen's attention to detail in what others may not give a second thought too. Ellen has a way with her writing that the mundane becomes unique upon her perception of it .
3. To READ is a very important element in fueling a writer with creativity and to inspire as well as direct where the writer can go .
4. Sometimes, not always but sometimes, our direction that we go in seems to take a completely different route in life than we anticipated, but the destination is still the same. Very much so is our writing in that sometimes, we have to stop, reword, rethink, subtract, add to, and start over but to be persistent and patient with our work.
5. I love the fact that she expressed what contribution someone's writing truly gives to others. If you write something that appeals to others, satisfaction that knowing you are a part of what your society found not only intersting, but sometimes enlightening and that in itself is a reward that cannot be substituted monetarily.
Ellen gets a thumbs up from me on every level.

Writing

I am thinking about changing the book that I am reading. This book doesn't really give any advice about the art of writing. It does however, offer helpful tips about writing. This is good, but I don't think it really goes into writing from the prospective of a writer. It is good for style, langugage, composition, and deatiling. Those are true very important. If you are looking for advice on writing then it is not the book that you would want to read. I will be posting another post when I get a different book.

From Ernest Hemingway on Writing

A lot of the book contains a bunch of different quotes from writers on whatever topic that chapter is discussing. I was reading the chapter about Advice for Writers. One quote talks about writing exactly what happened in action so that the reader envisions what you saw and hopefully will feel what you felt. I think that is a really helpful note because a good writer makes people feel an emotion. This is one of my favorite quotes so far in the book, "You see I'm trying in all my stories to get the feeling of actual life across-not to just depict life-or criticize it-but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me you actually experience the thing. You can't do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful. Because if it is all beautiful you can't believe in it. Things aren't that way. It is only by showing both sides-3 dimensions and if possible 4 that you can write the way I want to." -Dr. C. E. Hemingway I like this quote because it talks about making the writer feel something you do that by writing something believable. I know I talked about that in the past post, but it is repeated in this book, and I'm starting to see that it is very important. There was also another quote that talked about listening and observing. It said when you walk into a room you should be able to sit back and observe and be able to tell everything you saw and what happened. And what made you feel the way you did when you left. I think this is very important because when you write you have to know how to portray emotions, believable ones. I think it is also good to observe because you learn about different types of people. That can broaden your horizons on your characters, too.

Bird by Bird

Perfectionism, like many other authors believe, does not exist. In the words of Lamott, perfectionism will ruin your writing, block inventiveness and playfulness and life force.

This truly means when ones tries to write their best so they don't have to go back and make corrections. But those corrections you would make could possibly be the beginning of something really good that you wouldn't think about otherwise. This runs together with the issue of the polaroid developing. She stated that your first draft is like watching a polaroid picture develop, you're not supposed to know what your work is going to look like until it has finished developing. If you want everything mapped out in the beginning, it would't be any fun for you writing and not fun for the reader to read either.

Characters were also an important factor Lamott added. She said that you should discover what each character looks like on the inside and out. For instance, the pain they feel, what they look like when they get made, their sensitive side, and just how they say things in their dialogue. Building your character is very important I know that first hand, because you have to make your person you create as believable as possible.

More of Ellen Gilchrist

I think what I am finding out about Ellen is the way she perceives what it takes to be a good writer from every angle possible, not implying that we use every single one mentioned, but suggesting that by closely evaluating what we write as well as what we read. Ellen states, "Young writers should be careful about what they read" implying that what we read can affect our writing as well. This is something I guess I never really considered but makes complete sense. She also says that when she lived at the beach, she would read a poem of Robert Frost every morning and this would set the tone for her creativity at the beginning of her day.

In addition, Ellen also states that a good writer is a person who can hear within their own writing the way a sentence will be heard by their readers. Therefore, having this ability will create a direction that not only makes your readers more attentive, but keeps your writing interesting and of good quality.

WELL----My writer, Karen Armstrong, has finally come to the conclusion that she should be a writer--HALFWAY through the book! Heretofore she has been agonizing over the seven years she spent in a convent and trying to undo the damage done while she was there. Stay tuned for what happens next. Has anybody read "Ash Wednesday" by T.S. Eliot? She refers to that frequently. I haven't read it yet but hope to. Went to "Oliver" in Cape Charles Sunday & it was very good. Brought back memories of the time my daughter played "Nancy" many years ago.

Announcement

Guess what! Yours truly is the 'costume mistress' at the North Street Playhouse. My first assignment is to make/find costumes for a period piece (1860's) for a play that will take place in about 3 weeks! Yikes! If you are creative and can sew, let me know, I could use the help.

The play is Is He Dead? by Mark Twain. This was a long lost play discovered a few years ago. Gonna be interesting to say the least.

Pen on Fire

I have chosen a book called Pen on Fire, by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. I love this book. She is around my age and describes a busy life that includes kids, a husband, hosting a radio show, editing, and teaching writing courses at a college. She says she used to get sidetracked by the myth that 'as soon as I get time I will write.' I feel the same pressure. I claim to sit down as soon as time presents itself. She says that you have to take time rather than wait for it. She subscribes to carrying around a note book to jot down notes, poetry, etc. every free moment she finds - waiting in the doctor's office for her appointment, waiting on her kids when picking them up. Five, ten, fifteen minutes here and there gives you more writing then not writing till she has the time. I've tried this this week and guess what! It works for me.

"Bird by Bird"

The more and more I read this book the more and more I get into it. I've reached the point where she puts major emphasis on shitty first drafts. As she says they are truly meant to be shitty. I see exactly where she is coming from because this helps you get down everything that you have on your mind which leaves you later to take out whats not needed. If you don't have that first draft and try to put don't your best work, you aren't doing anything but eliminating the possibility of what great things you could come up with. Perfectionism, as Lamott states is not possible, nor real. When you try to do things perfect you truly only end up making mistakes anyway. Writing is truly more than just writing, it's an experience to put down what interactions you have going on in your mind. If you are truly trying to be a writer, trying to write a perfect story is not going to help you at all!

Writing Style

There are many different types of styles to writing. The book that I am reading says, that no two people have the same writing style. However, each style may be along the same lines. That is easy to understand becasue no two people are exactly alike. Even twins though they may be identical will have something that one likes and the other doesn't. That makes it easier to understand why no two people will write the same way. What I like is different from what other people may like. When writing you are writing what is on your mind. As we know the mind is a great thing. When you think about writing you think about what situations you have experienced. Style gives way to all of these thoughts.

Writers [on Writing]

My second book is actually called “Writers [on Writing]” and it’s the first of three volumes of collected essays from The New York Times. This volume has essays by no less than forty-six writers, including personal favourites such as E. L. Doctorow, Ward Just, Ed McBain, Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, Scott Turow and Kurt Vonnegut Jr: other esteemed contributors include Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike and Saul Bellow.
This book is somewhat different from everyone else’s because each contributor is restricted to one or two thousand words for a newspaper article and therefore cannot begin to tell the story of their lives (which is probably good discipline for me to learn). It also means that I can dive in at random, which, ultimately, I will doubtless regret. For example, though I have a number of ideas in my head for this blog, I now have no idea where in the book I found them!
The first couple of essays I looked at are concerned with the question of whether creative writing can actually be taught at all (and might be of great interest to our instructor), and several have actually taught courses and workshops on the basis that they’ve had their novels published, not because they have any talent for teaching. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who taught creative writing long before his reputation was established, notes that our best teachers are always going to be our editors (and publishers) if your main objective is to be published and read by as many people as possible. Several writers, including Vonnegut and Higgins, have stated the belief that a writer who claims a different objective is lying.
I’ve discovered some interesting ‘exercises’ which I’m actually glad we weren’t put through, such as writing short stories with absolutely no adjectives, or no adverbs, as ways to appreciate the power of unqualified verbs and nouns. Or of writing of a childhood experience through the eyes of the child you were, and then repeating the piece through the eyes of the adult you’ve now become. Vonnegut also points out that the best teachers (and editors) may not be able to write well themselves, but we should value them highly nonetheless.
The originator of the series, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist and editor, John Darnton, tells a little of his early life as a writer and his idea for the series (in one thousand words) and relates this encouraging advice he personally benefitted from: one thousand words a day, every day, means you have a completed novel in three to four months.
Finally (for now) a piece by Anne Bernays, born in 1930, a well respected writer, editor and publicist whom I’d never heard of, who spent a large part of her career teaching others: “There’s a sureness to good writing even when what’s being written about doesn’t make all that much sense. It’s the sureness of the so-called seat of an accomplished horse-back rider or a sailor coming about in a strong wind. The words have both muscle and grace, familiarity and surprise.” I take encouragement from that. The trick, it seems to me (and probably applies to most of us) is to maintain self confidence while still be willing to take criticism and advice.
I guess that’s true about everything, not just writing.

Ernest Hemingway On Writing

So far, this book has a few quotes about writing and then like a section on the same topic written about it after. One of the quotes that I really liked so far was in the section titled The Qualities of a Writer. It says, "The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it." I think that is a great quote because I think it talks about being real and believable. I also think it means to be true to yourself with how/what you are writing. Because if it isn't honest in your own mind and isn't believable, no reader will believe it. When you create a character you have to know your character like you know yourself, if you don't it isn't believable which would be where a writer should know it isn't from the, "shit detector."

Poetry that is just for our class I think

I am a Verb

For too much of my life
I have been a noun;
child, boy, man, father, whatever;
nouns of identity.
Often, preceded by too many adjectives.

I seem to be the subject,
or the object,
in the sentences of life.
Sometimes a proper noun,
But most often
just a plain, old, common one.

Is this I?
Not really.
The real me is continually in the process
of doing, being, living.
I am a verb, active tense;
not a verb past tense;
rarely a verb intransitive.

I exist through my living,
not because of some label.
Descriptives enhance mind pictures,
but do not define the essence of my spirit.
I am living. I am being.
I am not a noun.
I am a verb.

—Gene McParland, North Babylon, NY

Humorous chart

Hope you can open this article: http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/31/what-the-writing-pro.html

If not, at least the graphic writing chart.

Ellen Gilchrist

Although Ellen Gilchrist has already been covered, I enjoyed Chelseas post on her and thought I could benefit observing her specific writing skills as well.I would like to start of with a little about her. Ellen was a creative writing teacher at the University of Arkansas and has been quoted as saying, "I have learned much from my students and hope they have learned from me." Critics say she has subtle perceptions and unique characters with a strong sense of the writers voice.

Her first book of poetry named "The Land Surveyor's Daughter" in 1979 followed with "Riding out the Tropical Depression" but most of the attention came from her writing of fiction. "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" which sold 10,000 copies in the southwest alone, and later followed it up with "Victory Over Japan" which won the 1984 American Book Award for fiction. Ellen kept some of the characters alive from "In the Land of Dreamy Dreams" and continued their journeys but in a different direction which i find very interesting. I must say I love the chapter in her book entitled, "Breaking the Rules" because it almost gives me , what I feel to be, a greater range to write in without worrying some imaginary alarm is going to go off if my writing doesn't follow to the letter of what some may call standard rules of writing. In any event, I hope to learn much from her.

I'm back!

I truly enjoyed Janet Evanovich! She will continue to be a mentor to me. But on to something new. Not sure what, but I had thought about using Bird to Bird. I will see. But this week I will leave this: A freebee from Kindle How I Write Novels, by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (1855-1897).

I love the following excerpt from her: To sit down in cold blood and deliberately set to cudgel one's brains with a view to dragging from them a plot wherewith to make a book is (I have been told) the habit of some writers, and those of no small reputation. Happy people! What powers of concentration must be theirs! What a belief in themselves--that most desirable of all beliefs, that sweet propeller toward the temple of fame. Have faith in yourself, and all me, will have faith in you.

Doesn't that define the magic of writing!

Anne Lamott's, "Bird by Bird"

In starting my new book to read, I’ve chosen Anne Lamott’s, “Bird by Bird.” Starting off she talks about the process of getting started in your writing and how you should go about it. The best way to get started when trying to write Lamott says was to think about your childhood. This really made sense to me because there were so many experiences that one had of that time period. Then she goes on to give examples of just what instances one could further write on. To be really serious about writing, she says that you should schedule a set time for each day in which you will focus all your energy on writing. In her words she states, “This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for you creatively.” Writing no doubt at times can be a very challenging thing to do, but sometimes one can exert too much energy in trying to do so. To make the idea of writing easier and not as stressful, she says that she just writes one paragraph This paragraph is nothing more than a description of whatever you are going to write about whether it is the setting of the story, or something about the main character. For this to be the beginning of this book, she is giving some good pointers already and I’m eager to read more lol!

Annie Dillard

Well I've began my reading of Annie Dillard's 'The Writing Life' and in the very beginning she speaks of a hard truth some of us have already experienced. We've had to get rid of many things in our own stories and have to leave behind the tracks. She says when you write a book you can either get over the deleting of some of your work now or waste a whole year thinking about it. She describes writing by first describing painting. A painter can go over older versions and pretty much get rid of them easily (Obviously she hasn't tried certain types of paint. *laughs*) but a writer must right left to right, on the left is the discardable beginning chapters while in the middle we have the begginings of the latest versions and they harden at the end. She is indeed right when she says that we love our stories. We go over them so many times that they seem like poerty too us-- almost like every word fits together, but the key is reading from another person's point of view. Does it make sense if you were reading for the first time?

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Just read it; appalled by it; saw little literary merit despite reading several reviews. Picked up the following, which suggests, in my humble opinion, literary snobbery as a possible reason for its fame (or notoriety):

Fritz Oehlshlaeger, in "The Stoning of Mistress Hutchinson Meaning of Context in 'The Lottery'" (Essays in Literature, 1988), wrote:

The name of Jackson's victim links her to Anne Hutchinson, whose Antinomian beliefs, found to be heretical by the Puritan hierarchy, resulted in her banishment from Massachusetts in 1638. While Tessie Hutchinson is no spiritual rebel, to be sure, Jackson's allusion to Anne Hutchinson reinforces her suggestions of a rebellion lurking within the women of her imaginary village. Since Tessie Hutchinson is the protagonist of "The Lottery", there is every indication that her name is indeed an allusion to Anne Hutchinson, the American religious dissenter. She was excommunicated despite an unfair trial, while Tessie questions the tradition and correctness of the lottery as well as her humble status as a wife. It might as well be this insubordination that leads to her selection by the lottery and stoning by the angry mob of villagers.

Each to his (or her) own, I guess. Perhaps the key to success is to shock: I can do that.

She Writes! She Writes Ad!

Reading through the magazine that I was given to look through, I finally ran across this little brief ad that actually sounded interesting. This ad was letting readers know of a website that has now been created (www.shewrites.com) that is beneficial to all writers. This website sounds awesome because it states that it is just like having a fellow writer right there in your presence while writing. On this site there are people ready to answer whatever questions you may have, boost your efforts, and pick you up when you feel your writing is going downhill. This is a hell lot different than these social sites out there because this website is strictly about writing matters. It is a place where there are different writing and reading groups, public forums for you to interact in and even chat in private rooms. If you happen to not like the groups or forums already put forth, then you have the ability to create your own. That was really cool to hear to me. On this site as well there is a service page with a huge list of businesses that can offer you professional author’s assistance in doing things such as writing, editing, reading, public speaking and so forth. Even though the name of the site seems to be for only females, it clearly states to pay no mind to that because both male and female writers are welcome there. The only thing asked of to become a member is that you must consider yourself to be a writer. I definitely think I might check this site out to see if it is as helpful as it seems lol..

"On Writing"

Stephen King spoke at this point of his book about the crisis that he feels every writer has faced, which is writer’s block. His experience with writer’s block was when writing his book, “The Stand.” King said to get his thoughts back on track he would often take long walks. This was the time he would just enjoy the sites (birds chirping, view of trees, etc.) and think about what he was writing. He made it known that it truly isn’t an option to abandon your writing work because you into a block. This was especially true if you have put so much time and energy into your work. I know myself I have encountered writer’s block too many times and yes it is very frustrating. I guess I should have read this book a little earlier in life because I threw away a lot of work that I had started working on lol.

He also speak of the importance of a theme. King spoke of his struggle while writing, "The Stand" also. It involves a lot of thinking, and he says that you have to look back over your whole story to see what the basis of your story is about.

The Writer - Advice & inspiration for today's writer

I finally picked up one of the writers' magazines & have enjoyed perusing it. I was excited to see an interview with John Berendt who wrote Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which I have read, & I also saw the movie again recently.

He stresses what seems to be a recurring theme from the writers I have read about and that is the importance of listening. I would assume most writers wag around a little notebook or one of the newer electronic devices to jot things down as they hear them. I certainly would not be able to remember much without writing things down.

Berendt also stressed the importance of setting, saying that "each city has a personality, a mood, a history." Of course Midnight was set in Savannah, & his descriptions are very charming & colorful & really draw the reader in.

Another article which piqued my interest was storySouth, "an online literary journal devoted to 'provocative meditations on the Southern experience.'" I'm on my way to that website now & will report back later.

I was amused by an ad for Robert McKee's "storylogue"--an ongoing, online community for writers. For a free preview go to: www.storylogue.com. I haven't been there yet either. Seems to me that writers need to be unencumbered by family of any kind. One could spend every waking hour in writing pursuits. This writing thing seems addictive!

Congratulations (I hope)

Terron--If you are the Terron who's on the Merit's List honor roll, congratulations! If you're NOT the Terron on the list, I hope you'll be on it next time. Betty

Holy Advertisements, Batman!

I was amazed that spirituality, church, faith-based and Christian writing were featured in so many ads. The only other content-based genres were adult and children's' writing. Hmmm. There is a whole category of "New Age/Spiritual" Markets ranging from "The Mountain Astrologer" to "Fate" -accounts of the weird and unknown. The next two and a half pages are asking for submissions on "Religion." Catholics, Buddhists, Quakers, Pentecostals...what a list!
I am spiritually awakened.

Short Story Article

Short story writers, this is for you! Robert Papinchak writes an analysis of stories by D.H. Lawrence and John Updike showing how each author introduces setting, time, a main character and a theme in the beginning of a story. (Lawrence and Updike are in my pantheon of divine writers, so I found the article even more interesting.)
Both stories take place over the course of a few hours, but each describes a long emotional journey. Lawrence's "Odour of Chrysanthemums" follows the pregnant wife of a coal miner from waiting for her husband to come home at dusk to preparing his body for burial. Her emotions move from disdain and dislike for him to an acceptance of the fact that she really never knew him. Lawrence captures the dreary life of the miner's family and the fact that the miner's life and his home life are two separate arenas. His descriptions of the gritty, noisy coal mine and the cozy, homey world of the mother and children foreshadow the wife's emotional insight at the end. Updike, in "A Sense of Shelter," uses description to bring a high school senior to life showing him as comfortable in the surroundings of his school. When he confesses his love to a girl he worships, he finds that she wants only to graduate and never come back. Again, two characters living in separate worlds.
The article made me want to go back and read Lawrence and Updike with a more critical eye.
("Laying the Groundwork." Robert Papinchak, "The Writer," May, 2009.)

bird by bird

I finished Anne Lamott's book on writing. Woohoo! I'm a writer. Although I have written and been published (a little), I was not able to call myself a writer. It sounded pretentious. "Real" writers were something much more exalted and important. Reading Lamott's descriptions of writing gave me more perspective. No, I am not a professional writier, but I can call myself a writer. Thank you Anne Lamott! If any of you are looking for a second book, "bird by bird" is great.

Goodbye and Hello

As I say goodboye to Booca, I must give him credit for making such an easy book to read. He gives step by step his approach to writing. He would know since he has had several books on the best sellers list. His books starts off with the rules of writing then continues to the act of writing then talks of plot, going into details and feelings, action and dialogue, and then putting it all together. Bocca says, "when you have the last draft of your novel done, the real hard work begins." Bocca's You Can Write A Novel would be a book that I would recommend to everyone. The next book is a self help book entitled Writing Clearly. This book is basically going to talk about writing clearly. The first section How to Use This Book, details how you can use the book as a guide. One of the first things that I saw to catch my attention was how to communicate effectively. This is what I have a problem with sometimes. So I will definately be looking at some of the things in here so I can understand how to be a more effective communicator.

On Writing, by Anthony Burgess

Deciding one day that his privileged students at the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin College in Brunei simply did not want to be taught, Anthony Burgess abruptly abandoned the teaching profession - by lying face down on the classroom floor. It was, he said, "a willed collapse out of sheer boredom and frustration."

Two years later, in 1962, Burgess published his diabolic fable A Clockwork Orange - and set off on one of the most productive (and eccentric) careers in modern British literature.

From:http://grammar.about.com/od/writersonwriting/a/burgesslang07.htm

Posted for little other reason than that you might enjoy it. Burgess was one of my favorite writers for a while. Please enjoy one of his quotations:

“If you write fiction you are, in a sense, corrupted. There's a tremendous corruptibility for the fiction writer because you're dealing mainly with sex and violence. These remain the basic themes, they're the basic themes of Shakespeare whether you like it or not.”

On Reading Magazines for Writers

This whole 'Creative Writing' course is a voyage of self-discovery. I knew I wasn’t a magazine reader, I just didn’t realize how little interest I really have in reading them. I think I’m more of a ‘discussing’ person – some would say ‘arguing’ – and, probably due to my British background, that’s best undertaken in a British pub with a group of friends and with a couple of good pints already inside you. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the first few pages of “The Writer".
The article I’ve chosen to ‘review’ is called “Casting Words in Nature’s Best Light”, by Caitlin O’Connell. Ms. O’Connell is “a consulting professor at Stanford School of Medicine and teaches science writing…” online: she has written three non-fiction books and her novel is about to be published. She’s very much into photography and “…has been studying elephant ecology and behavior”, and one of her writing interests is getting science students really ‘turned on’ to their subject. One of her beautiful photographs of elephants in the magazine probably drew my interest. I really like elephants, too.
There is a line from a play or a movie I’ve seen where a writer is asked by a reporter what the book he has written is all about. The writer replies to the effect that if he could answer that question in a few short sentences then he wouldn’t have needed to write the book. I have the same difficulty summing up what Ms. O’Connell is saying in her article. However, I must try. I think it’s best summed up in the single quotation from the article: “How to look at what surrounds you – in some cases, what seems everyday, normal – and cast it in its most radiant form, to see with words that serve as a crutch for others, who, for whatever reason in their hurried life, may look but cannot see on their own.” Not grammatically correct, but that's another issue...
I think that’s what I believe – that everything I write should have the sole purpose of waking my reader up. That’s arrogant, of course - the assumption that I’m awake while everyone else is half asleep - and it’ll probably mean that I’ll never get published as long as I have that attitude. Are my readers paying to be woken up, or to be entertained? That’s rhetorical, by the way.
Seriously, though, Ms. O’Connell’s article has made me think that everything I write - every sentence – should have a purpose, the purpose being to convey to my reader an experience they perhaps have not previously had. A tall order, but a worthwhile goal to strive for?

Reaction to an ad

I had no idea in a writer's magazine they would advertise a place to rent.

The ad said:

Writer's Dream: summer breezes, fall foliage, quiet. Completely furnished cottage on the northern coast of Maine. By week or months. www.grayspointcottage.com - deann@busygal.org - 352-573-0013.

I actually went to the website to get a better idea. But I think it is a smart move to put an ad like that in a writer's magazine when often writer's seem to either want solitude, to clear their heads, or to get away so they can get organized and just sit and write. And after looking at the pictures on the website, I think it would definitely be a place that would be good to go to write or get ideas. If I was writing and needed to get away from all the clutter in my head and house, I would definitely go stay there. It looked peaceful. So I thought it was a surprise but interesting/smart move to do that because I'm sure they would get responses from writers.

My article reaction

The article I chose to share my thoughts on was in the Sell Your Own Work edition of The Writer magazine. The article was called "What Harper Lee taught me about writing and the writing life." I chose this article because when I saw it was about Harper Lee, I knew that was the one. Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Out of all the books I've had to read in high school and college thus far, that is by far the best required text. It is such a vivid story with a great point and it tells about a time that I wasn't there for but the way Lee told the story, I felt like I experienced it. But anyways, about the article. I kind of thought it was ironic for another author that is not Lee to be writing a book about a young girl whose favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. But I did like that the author was using the book itself as a "writing tool." I think you can tell a lot about an author by looking at their work.

I actually found out a few things I didn't know in this article. I didn't know that Lee's father served as the model for Atticus, Dill resembled her friend Truman Capote and she was tomboyish like Scout. There was even a neighbor that left presents in a tree like Boo Radley did. All of this goes to show, you know your characters and you base things off your experiences. (I think some good advice because look what happened when she wrote what she knew.)

Lee actually started To Kill a Mockingbird as a series of short stories, then she took off two and a half years to revise it.

I love the quote they included that Lee said, "Writing is a process of self-discipline you must learn before you can call yourself a writer. There are people who write, but I think they're quite different from people who must write."

The author also learns from Lee that you should include an element of surprise. The example she picks is great because it is when Atticus takes one shot and kills the rabid dog. And How Scout and Jem learned something surprising about their father who is soft spoken. I remember reading that part of the book and being just as surprised as Scout and Jem were, which is why the book is so great because you feel like you're there.

She also says to let your characters grow in the novel, to hope for the best and expect nothing (I think is a great thing in life, not just writing) and to be humble.

I loved this article because for one, I learned a few things I didn't know, I felt it had good advice and supporting evidence as to how it works and I thought it was great to see an article that shows well written work and why especially from Harper Lee because I think everyone should read that book.

Final thoughts on The Writing Life

Since I had technical difficulties not being able to get on blog for a majority of the class so far, I wrote down little notes on parts of the book the stuck out to me. I'm going to try to sum up my thoughts. This book showed a different point of view on a person who is unlike anyone I've met but through Ellen Gilchrist's writing I feel like I know her and her crazy ways she gets things done when writing. She talks about she often would ditch her friends when she got going on a writing frenzy. What a dedicated writer.

She talks about how you don't have to have traveled around the world to be a writer. Although I think having more experience worldly helps, she says write about what you know. And if you're tired of writing and feeling forced, take a break. She repeated often in her book that writing is rewriting. Which I think Roy talked about in class how your story evolves and then you should go back and rewrite it. But Gilchrist talks about how you should write, edit, rewrite, edit again and keep repeating until you've got it.

She says you should know your characters. You should know who their great-grandparents were and where they lived. How many siblings did he have? What did he think about when he was a child? Did he play sports? Did he go to church? What is mother cooked for him? What is parents did? What he got for Christmas? She says you should know them in and out. You don't have to include all the information, just know it.

She also often said show don't tell which I know Ms. G tells us often.

She says you need to trust yourself. If you write something that you think is funny, don't second guess, the reader will think it is.

She says students often fear writing because they fear what they write won't be good. So they don't know until they write. So she says write!

All in all the best way I'd sum this up in lesser words is that Gilchrist's message is to trust yourself, write what you know, show it don't tell, and that writing is rewriting. I'm not exactly sure what specific thing I take away from this book, probably the idea of writing without fearing what it will turn out to be. But the book is great :)

Eudora Welty, etc.

This bleepin' blog thingy (do I sound like SP?) is driving me nuts! (I was gonna say "friggin'" but looked it up & it says, "a way to say f*cking when your parents are around" so I decided not to use it. Anyway, I responded to Charlie's blog but apparently forgot to press the magic button to record it so it went away. I just finished what I thought was a pretty clever blog on my friend, Eudora, and while trying to figure out how to italicize a book title, I pressed something and "poof"! if vanished. Soooo--I will try again.

Eudora is now tucked safely back in the Accomac Library shelves but is still on my mind, & I wanted to share a few more comments. One of her quotes regarding writing was, "Every feeling waits upon its gesture." I find this rather difficult w/ regard to our current assignment which does not allow our using stage directions; thus, we must empower our characters solely through their use of words. Not easy for me. One of Welty's short stories, Robber Bridegroom, was made into a play, but SHE did not have to worry about not using stage directions.

Another of her observations was that the frame "through which I view the world has changed with time." Oh how true. When I read some of my writings of long ago I am amused and sometimes bewildered at some of it. She also says writing is a way to discover sequence--i.e., cause and effect, and that meanings are discovered through retrospect--threads to memory.

My son-in-law spent a summer acting in Jackson, MS, and was fortunate enough to meet Ms. Welty in the home where she lived when she was born and when she died (now a museum). After keeping him and others in the cast waiting for about thirty minutes, she appeared and announced in her syrupy southern drawl, "I hope you'll forgive my slow pokery." He thought that was very funny. She was in her eighties at the time.

Interestingly, I just finished a book (The Help--forget the italics!) which was set in Jackson, MS. The author's descriptions about the South were similar to Eudora's.

And now, Dear Hearts, I'm going to press the magic button and hope this cotton-pickin' thing flies.

5 roadblocks to good Writing....

Bonnie Trenga, a freelance writer and editor wrote a very interesting article which gives good pointers for a new writers on what to avoid in order to do good writing. If people tend to read your writing and decide to put it away on a shelf and never pick it up again, that means that there was something that your booked truly lacked. Bonnie called this mistakes traffic cones, because they stop the flow of your work being good. Those 5 factors that she considered the 5 roadblocks consisted of being too jumbled, too dull, too general, too inapproppriate, and too awkward. In speaking on the first traffic cone, being too jumbled, basically says to keep your ideas of writing together. It's not healthy to jump from one idea to the next zizzagging because that will just cause the reader to get confused. Bonnie believes that the use of an outline would also be helpful, because in doing drafts you will be able to find the places in your writing that are lacking in organization. The next traffic cone is being too dull. Bottom line you don't want to bore out your readers with a rhythm structure that is similar throughout your writing. You should make sure that you don't start every sentence you have the same way. By jazzing up your sentences by using a fragment or a compound sentence, you will be keeping your reader alert and interested. The next traffic cone is being too general. Don't sound like everyone else's work, be creative. You can do this by using different vocabulary, and make your writing have a voice that will stand out that different from everybody else. Traffic cone 4 is being too inappropriate. Use a vocabulary that is truly fitting for what you are writing. Yes you may want to impress your readers, but don't do so by using fancy vocabulary that doesn't need to be there or use improper grammar unless it is realistic of the character. The last traffic cone is being too awkward. This basically says that you don't want the one reading your writing to be distracted by a distortion in grammar, punctuation or your spelling. If the reader has too much to battle which trying to read the paper, they will have a hard time getting through your paper.

This tips were really helpful and truthful as well...

"On Writing"

King goes on playing emphasis about the importance of dialog and the creation of good characters. In creating characters you have to think about what's real and be able to describe what it is you see. The key to having a successful dialogue is being honest. In the character you have created you have to make the words that that character might say be real. It wouldn't be a good idea to make a hard criminal have real sensitive traits, that's just not realistic.

He also doesn't believe that a story or novel should be allowed outside of your writing room unless you are confident in what you wrote is just right for readers. King says that it's not possible to please all the readers of your work, but you should at least attempt to to please some of your readers. This is when truly you are .in control and have to be the judge of your own work. Being the judge of your own work, you are able to hear the words of the story for yourself and imagine the effects it will have on the reader. It is also important to have drafts when writing. Thinking realistically, you are not going to sit down and write a perfect copy your first go around. If King believes you need to write drafts, then I feel it is very necessary. By using drafts you are able to read your story and make additions and even take out things you deem unecessary. I felt this was very helpful to me, so I know it will be helpful to you lol!

Evanovich on deciding on a plot

Janet, surprisingly, stated that plotting isn't her favorite thing to do. She says that she listens " . . . to some cheesy disco music to get my energy up. Then I sit down with a yellow pad and a big bag of chips. I think about a crime and why it would occur. What were the bad guys thinking? What did they want? How did they do it? Why did they get caught? How did the capture go down? I see it as a movie. Then I write out my little time line of action."

Janet also likened plotting to Red Riding Hood. "Red is the good guy and the wold is the bad guy." Then the plot takes off from there - Little Red off to granny's. Wolf beats here there and locks up granny. Dresses in granny's nightgown - the crisis point. A pizza deliver guy happens along and saves Red. The End.

Funny stuff, but so true on plot development.

Since poetry is our next venture. . .

“Poetry can startle you, awaken you, make you fall in love, take your breath away. When those words sink in, you'll never look at your life or your journey the same way again.” — Maria Shriver, guest editor From Oprah's Website.

Final Post For Annie Dillard

Annie Dillard is an author who I find can utilize metaphors like no other author I have encountered before and she seems to enjoy doing so, yet inevitably gets her objective across crystal clear. She has left me with embracing the process of creative writing instead of fearing the changes to ones own personal writings that are necessary to achieve completion.

In the final chapters of Anne's book, she emphasizes several vital points that should help anyone who is attempting to write with creativity. Anne says that one must write in a very plain atmosphere so the "imagination can soar" and also makes an analogy that when writing, you should "aim for the chopping block" stated to mean go right to the heart of the matter. Do not beat around the bush but take a stand on whatever point is driving you at the time of its origin.

I enjoyed reading her positions on writing very much because it gave a glimpse of how someone who is on such an acclaimed level of writing faces the same fears that we all do when creating. We need to just forge ahead and let the words land where they may. Who knows, anything can happen

Gadgets on our Right

Remember to check out the gadgets on the right of our page from time to time.  For example, Betty sent me a link to an interesting site called Delanceyplace.  I have included a link to that blog/site under the Links to Articles about Writing and Reading gadget to our right.  Also, I will continue to add titles to the Books by Writers about Writing gadget.  Notice the new title by Rita Mae Brown?

Ads for Workshops on Writing and Such

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Also, in Roanoake, Virginia, Tinker Mountain Writer's Workshop take part in small classes dealing with advanced fiction, memoir-writing, freelancing, and manuscript reviews. To find out more, contact: Christine Powell, Tinker Mountain Writer's Workshop, hollins University, P.O. Box 9552, Roanoke, VA 34020.

Bluegrass Memories of a writer's clip

Dawn Goldsmith, a staff member of Ohio State Univesity's Development and Communications Department wrote a very interesting article on getting your foot in the door as far as being acknowledged for writing projects that act like a stepping stone to further your exposure and possibility of becoming a paid writer. In 1981, Dawn overcame her fear of people judging her writing as well as her fear of failure. A bluegrass band had returned home after winning a national blugrass contest. Their name was Blanchard Valley Bluegrass Boys and after researching their attributes, Dawn drug her husband to a concert they were doing and after the powers that be discovered her to being a writer, Dawn and her husband were escorted to the side of the stage to watch the performance.

Dawn wrote an article on the band and it was published in Bluegrass Unlimited to sum of $125.00 in her favor. More than just being paid for her writing, Dawn saw that it was possible for a small town person to become more than just a big fish in a small pond. By allowing herself to project herself outside the box, she began to compile her works to both regional and trade magazines, and Dawn was also made a writer and editorial assistant for her local newspaper. Writing locally taught her several important ways of overcoming deadlines while honing her style of writing as well.

Finally, her work with the newspaper opened the door for her current job at the university and continuing her writing in a forward motion opened yet another door with an internet writing workshop where together with Peggy Vincent, wrote a book called "Baby Catcher; Chronicles of a Modern Midwife" teaching her how to finesse the mechanics of other people's writings as well. Her growth as a writer increased when her focus was no longer revolving on monetary rewards. Although, by the level of her writing increasing, so did the financial accolades for her work. Her advice is to simply embrace criticism from others about your writing while not giving to much attention to self-criticism, and by doing so realizing that there are worse evils than someone rejecting your creation. "Write, write, and rewrite" are the ways she prescribes to becoming a better writer and to always keep your eye out for opportunities while enjoying the ride that your work will take you.

act of writing vs craft of writing

While continuing to read this easy to read book. I stumbled across something that I had to think about for a minute. Bocca says, "The act of writing - as opposed to the craft of writing - is an odd mixture fo continous self-discipline and self-administerd psychotherapy." I had never thought about the difference between the craft of writing and the act of writing itself. I just believed that the two were one in the same. Even now thinking about it I am having a hard time understanding the difference. I guess this means that I am not a true writer.

I find some things to be a little far fetched. Like he says, that he writes between 2000 and 2500 words per day and he works 363 days a year. To me this seems to be alot. He says of this total amount approximately 3/4 goes in the waste basket. To me this seems as if he is wasting alot of time doing nothing. I believe that if you are truly writing than everything that you write has a place. Now I understand that he has rough drafts, but this is a little much.

My New Friend

At last I have stumbled my way into the blogosphere! I have had plenty of time to bond with Eudora Welty who is (was) a well known southern writer. Her book is entitled One Writer's Beginnings. Much of her writing consists of short stories, and she writes of everyday things, drawing the reader in with her folksy dialogue. Her Why I Live at the P.O. is typical of her use of subtle humor. She stresses the importance of chronology as well as taking photographs as memory hooks. I am inspired to drag out my new digital camera which has been awaiting my use for almost two years now. I typed my husband's memoirs and having pictures from the past was a huge help.

Eudora had the good fortune to be born into a family who valued education and encouraged critical thinking and exploration. Her father was a gadget person & wanted to know the hows and wherefores of everything. His inquisitive nature was passed on to his only daughter. Her mother was a reader and promoted Eudora's reading as well. She was very interested in weather and includes meteorology in some of her writing.

Stay tuned for more on my new best friend, Eudora.

A Real Eye Opener

I find it so intresting that in King's life he had many English classes and such but his real lesson he says came when he was working under John Gould for a newspaper his teachers technically forced him to be the sports reporter for. He brought John his first to peices- the first he changed two or three things and printed. The second; he took a black marker to and start going though things. King was serprised- because all of his teachers before that had never changed much in his papers, and yet here was John, changing all of the 'un-needed detail' and making it better. He says John gave him some of the best advice he's ever been given, and that's these words:

"When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story, when you rewrite, your main job is taking out all that are NOT the story." he later went to say that you "write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right--as right as you can, anyway--it belongs to anyone who wants to read it. Or criticize it."

It's something to think about, I think and I have diffenetly taken it to heart.

"On Writing

Stephen King goes on farther in his book to talk about the importance of description. He truly believes that this description is what makes the reader of the book a sensory participant in the story. I definitely have to agree with him on that because when you are able to feel like you are actually present in the story, nothing will be able to distract you from reading the book. He once more also acknowledges that in order to be a successful wrighter you have to read a lot as well as write a lot too. In doing this, this will help you decide how to and how much of a description to write. You must be good with visualization so that the reader with be able to recognize what's going on and not leaving the reader feeling bewildered and nearsighted. What I liked about what he said was that there is no need for overdescription, because you should only give the reader enough to be able to paint a picture of their own. King feels that many writers give too many outstanding descriptions of the characters that they leave the reader with nothing to imagine and that is just them being lazy. The main job of the writer is the right the story. A classic example he gave of a brief description which will give the reader enough to formulate a picture on their own was, "If I tell you that CArrie White is a high school outcast with a bad complexion and a fashion-victim wardrobe, I think you can do the rest!" I know that for myself I can paint a real good picture of this Carrie, because i have a basic idea of outcasts back from my high school days lol....So bottom line is a writer should not kill their story by giving too much of a physical description because they get lazy!

Keeping on Track

When Janet Evanovich was asked how she kept track of the elements of her novels, she says that she has a whiteboard that she uses as a storyboard. She has what opens the story, what ends the story and what the crime and who the villian will be. This sounds a lot like keeping a date book to me. She goes as far as to label what events happen to the character on a daily basis: (Wed) Lula in a band - Ranger tells Steph . . .

This sounds a lot like what I do but more detailed. This has helped me with the book I've had stuck in my head for years. I've started this type of 'Date Book' for my characters. It really helps.

A lesson in teaching writing

I'm agnostic about the benefits of creative-writing classes, but would-be fictioneers could do worse than emulate the greats. If your narrative kicks off with the same efficiency as DH Lawrence's Women in Love, you can't go far wrong.

Can you teach writing? Americans think you can, broadly speaking. They are happy to attempt a definition of good writing. In the UK, we are a bit more sceptical. At a pinch, we'll concede that there's good and bad usage (for instance, all serious newspapers have a style book), but we wouldn't go much beyond the horror of the split infinitive or the dangling participle. We have Henry Fowler, who is not really quotable – very conservative and rather old maidish. They have Strunk and White, whose "omit needless words" and "prefer the standard to the offbeat" have reverberated through American prose for half a century.

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style was published in 1918, has gone through countless editions and has never been seriously challenged (or should that be "seriously been challenged"?). Last month in the US, the influential critic Stanley Fish published a contemporary variation on an old theme with How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One.

All his career, Fish has grappled with one question: how do forms of writing produce forms of thought? His new book is really a long, and very interesting, footnote to that endeavour. I hope it gets published in the UK. It certainly deserves a UK audience – but I'm not going to attempt a review of it here, now. Today, I'm more interested in the idea of instructing people how to write.

I'm agnostic on the teaching-of-writing question. I have no doubt that there are some great creative-writing professors, just as there are also plenty of charlatans and timewasters. I certainly do believe that you can show would-be writers examples of good prose, as an inspiration. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that one way to limber up for one's own writing is to read, at random, from other books. Not so you fall under an influence, but just enough to be reminded about the magic potential of original prose.

If I was teaching a writing class, which mercifully I don't have to do, here are some passages I'd refer to by way of illustrating some technical lessons.

1. The introduction of a fictional landscape: How to bring up the curtain on a narrative setting. Two classic passages:
- The first chapter of Hardy's The Return of the Native
- The opening of EM Forster's A Passage To India

2. Narrative economy: How to get a story going and introduce your protagonists with maximum speed and efficiency, while developing the plot and establishing character and motivation:
- The opening chapter of Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon
- The opening pages of DH Lawrence's Women in Love
- The first two pages of Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

3. The joy of dialogue: How to convey character and situation in fictional speech:
- Almost any passage from Beckett's Waiting for Godot
- Elizabeth Taylor's Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

4. The magic of tone: How to make your voice heard on the page, to mesmerise the reader:
- Lorrie Moore's story "Vissi D'arte" (actually, almost anything by Lorrie Moore illustrates this)
- JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
- Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

5. Pace: How to get started, at top speed:
- Act I of Macbeth
- Virginia Woolf's Orlando
- Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island

6. Impact: How to grab the reader's attention and hold it by the scruff of the neck:
- Graham Greene's "The Destructors"
- Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song
- Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses

7. The only rule is that there are no rules: How to defy gravity in prose and still come out a winner:
- Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy
- Melville's Moby Dick
- Samuel Richardson's Clarissa.

Robert McCrum on Books, a blog from the English newspaper, The Guardian, 2/21/2013

Dramatizing

Bocca says, "The art of dramatizing begins with characterization. Bring all your characters to life." To me characterization begins with the naming of the characters. Just as Michele said on Friday, name are very important. They must be given some thought. Another thing that Bocca talks about is the structure of the sentence and paragraph. I believe that whatever you right, it must be easily understood. The book discuses why use a long word when a shorter word will do. That makes complete. Simple words give way to better flow. Sometimes short words will not do. However, there are times when a short word will accomplish the same thing. Sometimes we may have to use a thesaurus to get better words to use. Bocca, gives credit to George Orwell for these principles. He says, "If it is possible to cut a word, cut it out." Going back to what Michele said about names, Bocca says, "Avoid names ending in s." He believes this is important when you are maing those names to show possesion.

Crowns

If any of you can see it, please go. It is a wonderful experience. It is vibrant with color and talent. It left me mentally saying encore. I may have to go again!

Reading Janet Evanovich makes me feel at ease about my writing and how I build a story. She stated that everyone is different. She thinks of plot as the engine that pulls her character and story from one place to the next. She said that some writers structure their stories by building 50-page outlines and some start on page one and build.

Janet is somewhere in between. She does short character sketches and then chooses a location and then what crime will be used. Then she makes a time line about 5 pages long. This gives her some plot points and direction. She said the details come to her as she writes. She said that she sticks to the original outline, but with flexibility as needed.

My style is somewhat different, but I do write an outline. This has helped me to trim my writing style making it easier to write a story line.

Stephen King's....On Writing

In gaining more depth in reading this book, as I've said in earlier blogs, King is full of humor. In this book he makes reference to a Muse. This muse, in reality is the creative side of one's self. But to him he describes it as this little man who comes out when you are in the right writing environment, and have a strict routine to right. Then well he come out chomping his cigar and spilling his magic all over your paper. I just thought that was so funny so I had to share it. Also in my reading he tells so more tips of what it takes to be a writer. One thing he stated was the importance of both reading a lot, and writing a lot. To him reading is important because in all the books you read, they all tend to have a lesson, and that truly adds on to your learning process. What i considered very valuable was about good writing. He used the example of how many start writing with the intention to sweep their readers off their feet with their story. King says that a true writer cannot accomplish such a thing until they have been swept off their feet by another writer. I understand that really because when you read something great, and it blows your mind it is then when you know what it takes to add that effect to your own writing. He also speaks of writing regularly as well.

"Constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness."

"The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor."

Steven King is definitely great!

Annie Dillard on "Movie Scripted writing"

What I have found most interesting about Annie Dillard just recently after diving into her writing further is her perception on authors who try to target readers specifically looking for dialogue that will inevitably turned into a manuscript for a movie. Annie says that people who truly like to read are not interested in that kind of writing, and in fact, says that "novels written with film contracts in mind hav a faint but unmistakable and ruinous odor." This just makes me wonder what her opinion of writers such as Danielle Steele and even Steven King is. And,I also found it comforting that Annie implies that most people who decide to write an important piece of work can take a very long time to do so, unlike Faulkner's "As I Lay Dyeing" which was supposedly written in six weeks. Anyone having knowledge of this fact should not imagine that this is a norm by any means.

Moving towards drama

I've been absent from the blog for some weeks and have picked up my George V. Higgins' "On Writing" again as we move from 'Creative Non-fiction' into 'Drama'. It's appropriate.
I said that Higgins is famous - and often criticized – for his novels being at least 95% dialogue. Higgins is a great fan of John O’Hara, probably best known for “From the Terrace” (not least because it was made into a successful movie starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward), but whose best novel is probably “Appointment in Samarra”. But O’Hara is most famous as a writer of short story fiction and, of course, his mastery of dialogue. I have not been interested in short stories (until now, perhaps), but Higgins reprints one of O’Hara’s completely in “On Writing”. The story is entitled “Appearances” and you can read a 1960 review of it and other O’Hara short stories at: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/3/21/how-important-is-ohara-pjohn-ohara/?print=1 According to Higgins it’s a little over 3,300 words and I would guess it’s probably 98% dialogue.
Higgins then proceeds to analyze how O’Hara tells the story so economically through dialogue in what he – Higgins - calls “the density of his material”. Having just read the story, Higgins’ analysis shows me how much of a picture of the characters and their surroundings and circumstances I have created from the dialogue alone. Higgins points out that “Reading is not a spectator sport, not when the writing is done by a John O’Hara; it is a participatory event”.
With regard to the ‘technique’ of writing dialogue, Higgins tells a true story of O’Hara. After submitting a short story, O’Hara was called in by his editor and questioned about his quote of a young well-educated society girl: “Robert didn’t come with she and I.” The editor, too, was college educated and insisted the college-educated character would have said “… with her and me.” O’Hara claimed that fashionable schools at that time so labored the grammatical rule in such phrases as “Josephine is prettier than I.” to the extent of developing an aversion to the objective pronouns, “her” and “me”; O’Hara got his way and the editor contacted him weeks later to confess that all the girls of that age and class she had met delivered the phrase exactly as O’Hara had written it. Though the simple error seems like a small point, O’Hara claimed, “… that it revealed more about the girl than a hundred words of descriptive matter.”
I guess my labored point is that the step between prose and drama can be almost non-existent.

Stephen King on Writing

I know I haven't been able to write for a while, but I have been able to read. Stephen King, for the first good portion of his book, seems to be telling more about his life and how he became a writer than actually on writing. (Something I actually like) One of the most intresting stories I read so far was about one of his first attempts at publication.

It was in the 1950s and he'd only just started watching T.V. he was very fond of a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland who was edited by someone named Forrest J. Ackerman who later wrote his own Magazine called Spacemen he sent his story (That of which he forgot the title) to this magazine and was rejected, but Forry kept it all those years, and twenty years later when King was signing autographs in a bookstore Forry came up with the single-spaced story and asked him to sign it for him.

The first story he actually did have published was in a horror Fanzine that was made by Mike Garret, he gave it the title of In a Half-World of Terrors but King still likes his original title I was a Teen-Age Grave-Robber

Instructors have always tried to sell me the old clap trap, "Write what you know." I've never believe this preposterous opine. And Janet Evanovich has redeemed my theory. She says, "If I wrote about what I knew best, my books would be about someone sitting in a room with a parrot squawking in the corner - typing away for hours on a computer. Boring!"

She says, however, that you have to research. To portray Stephanie Plum, her main character correctly, she studied bondsman and their agencies. She got to know cops, rode with them, even carried a loaded gun in her waistband to see how that would feel. Then she tailored the facts she learned to her characters.

I'm looking forward to character development - though instead of a real, cold steely gun, I will use a water pistol with cool water.

Annie Dillard

My blog is about Anne Dillard and first and foremost, I would like to give you a little background about this author. Anne was born of affluent parents in Connecticut who encouraged her choice in writing profesionally. She was a rebel in high school and was influenced at that point by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. She went to college near Roanoke, Virginia called Hollins College and married her writing teacher. She graduated with a Master's degree in English and wrote a forty page thesis on Thoreau's "Waldon", and so Anne's writing reflected her love for nature. This love combined with her admiration for Thoreau's style of writing is reflected greatly in her own work as well.

On writing, Anne says "you make the path boldly, and follow it fearfully", and also quotes Jack London by saying, "every writer needs a technique, experience, and philosophical position." In describing some of the pitfalls one can encounter when writing anything of substance, what I am getting from her reading the most is that everyone has to have a focal point and that we all have things that sidetrack us from our goal, but most importantly, rewriting and changing the direction of your theme can and will happen numerous times before completion of any serious body of work and that it is part of the process.

Janet Evanovich on character development

On character development, Evanovich says, ". . .there has to be honesty." So consistency in character is a must to make the character believable. Three points Evanovich follows are: 1) The main character must want something. 2) Someone or something (nature, money, distance) must stand in the way of his getting what he wants and 3) The choices that a character makes in his efforts to overcome obstacles and ultimately get what he wants define a character.

I have found these four points to be so true to make interesting and consistent characters. I love the fact that she say 'there has to be honesty.' This to me means consistency. Would your character act or react this or that way. Will the reader believe what the character is say, feeling and/or doing in a situation. I also love that she points out there has to be a dilemma to make, not just the character interesting, but the story line interesting.

"On Writing"

In my continued reading of Stephen King's, "On Writing," there is still more discussion of his life before his fame and success. He talked of how his success was a long time coming and then finally getting the big break he was looking for. That big break was when the paperback rights to his story, "Carrie," were brought for $400,000. But with this success as in many cases there also is a downfall. Stephen spoke of his alcohol problem and how it got a hold on him and he lost his love for the craft. That was a shock to me because I didn't think this would happen to him but it did. Along with the alcohol came the drug use. With the help and support of family and friends he managed to shake off the drug and alcohol problem and began getting his feel back for writing.

I finally made it to the part of the book where he started talking about writing. King told of the powers that come with writing and what is needed. He feels the best environment required for writing is a isolated place, away from noise and enough room for you to gather your thoughts and proceed to write. What I also gathered was that there is the need to try and see objects in a different light of what they really are, which is being imaginative. Another key point he made was it's okay to be scared, nervous, or overly anxious to write but the bottom line is that you must love what you do. The statement that really stuck with me was, "If you can't or won't take writing seriously, it's time for you to close the book and do something else!" Next he began to talk about the necessary toolbox that you need to carry when writing. This toolbox he spoke of consisted of four levels or maybe six. Some of these levels were grammer, vocabulary, and paragraph organization. There were many examples of sentences that to him, are not a good way to go in writing. I see this as very informative and funny at the same time.

characters

Anne says in "Bird By Bird" that her mind spends much of the time having conversations with people who aren't there. She also says when developing a character, you really need to get to know each individual. Find out how they stand, what they carry in their pockets, what happens to their face and their posture when they're thinking, or sad, or angry. Why should we care about them anyway, what would be the first thing they stopped doing if they found out they had six months to live? She says you are going to love some of your characters because they are you or some facet of you and you are going to hate some of you characters for the same reason, but no matter what you are probably going to have to let bad things happen to some of the characters that you love or you won't have much of a story. Bad things happen to characters because they are human and do not behave perfectly all the time, and there are consiquence to all of our actions. What she says about developing a character is improtant. I never thought of looking at every character that deeply, but i know now that once you develop the charaters your story will come.

Sociability

There are several key things that Bocca says that must be considered when writing. To me the most important things are "you must consider your audience, you must understand your readers at least as well as you understand the characters in your book." My absolute favorite "Aim high rather than low" he says this because he says that audiences are more respectful if you go over their heads than if you insult talk down to them and insult their intelligence. I agree with that so much because I would rather someone say something that blows me away than for them to talk down to me. Bocca himself writes on a level that is easily understood. He believes that whatever you write must "convey information and produce a calculated effect." Whatever you write there is bound to be something that you want people to think and feel so I definitely understand that. He also recommeds that you remeber ceratin things about converstions that either you heard directly or indirectly. A writer must be a social person. They should try and meet as many people as they can. I believe this is done so that they can understand all different types of people. You never know who you next reader might be.

Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird writes, "Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't - and in fact you're not supposed to - know exactly wha the picture is supposed to look like until it has finished developing." What a great image. Noodling with my Remembered Event first draft, so much more has come back to me.

Poem's

I thought you guys might like to see a preview for the poem I was gonna show you in class.
=^-^=

Little Raindrop

Little rain drop-
That falls on my face.
Your journey was long-
From heaven's embrace.
You fell from his hands-
To save my grace.
Tears that fall from my eyes-
Hidden under your disquise.
Thank you little raindrop-
For being my lies.

Welcome

The ESCC Graphomaniacs gather on Fridays to discuss writing.  This blog provides a place for us to share thoughts about what we are reading.  I look forward to reading your posts.