tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44083442346490075292024-03-13T21:17:02.780-04:00The BackstoryAnniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-76243024726209158532018-04-02T12:25:00.003-04:002018-04-02T12:25:26.615-04:00Middle-Grade Me<span style="font-size: large;">I write from the middle-grade me. I can't help it. There's a twelve-year-old lodged in the writing portion of my soul. That's exactly where I go to mine for hidden gems when I need the start of a new story, or just inspiration for a work already in progress.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPcRIzouPGLvZCQHLpmKkpKbIc7E4tTvyWWimebHgCElEBpBr5ZPpcPgfSNpswMpgbqjBhdinmwCh_hqJ8LYpjX0U6pczSQYclFgshaNxKGewsupmZrz1PxvD96ipHPFyD6txqX8PncWR/s1600/turntable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1600" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPcRIzouPGLvZCQHLpmKkpKbIc7E4tTvyWWimebHgCElEBpBr5ZPpcPgfSNpswMpgbqjBhdinmwCh_hqJ8LYpjX0U6pczSQYclFgshaNxKGewsupmZrz1PxvD96ipHPFyD6txqX8PncWR/s320/turntable.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Listening to songs from that time in my life are perfect for getting the emotional memories flowing. Often from the very first note, my mind will go back to an exact place, a situation, maybe even a heartbreak or injustice--or happiness experienced by my twelve-year-old self. Feeling and emotion are everything in story, and airing them out again can spark something worth writing.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfJbcMlfuLLGOYJfFXcAtyVLu_x3FIGDApjKnkmY42vG2-48-ruU9xw0rxdZOMyITHDNi6nXZSyNluYpci4ZsKW9aUMD-qy8PXtWRvUv7Jc6Jp9sBo4prUaaHeCv_uVDO_MuSIx8nEqd1/s1600/IMG_0690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="723" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfJbcMlfuLLGOYJfFXcAtyVLu_x3FIGDApjKnkmY42vG2-48-ruU9xw0rxdZOMyITHDNi6nXZSyNluYpci4ZsKW9aUMD-qy8PXtWRvUv7Jc6Jp9sBo4prUaaHeCv_uVDO_MuSIx8nEqd1/s320/IMG_0690.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">If you live near your old stomping grounds, try taking a walking tour with your notebook. Or if you are far away, try a virtual walk using Google maps. You may be surprised at what you see around your old neighborhood. I once looked up my old house on Zillow. Just the sight of my front yard where I used to sit in the shade of a giant fir tree for hours with my stack of library books brought up so many hidden gems of emotions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When was the last time you dusted off your old middle school yearbooks?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There can be a wealth of emotions and angst, hopes and fears, scrawled in the purple and pink comments of the endpapers. (Caution: Don't get caught up in the time suck of tallying up the number of times it says, "Have fun this summer." ... or .... "I hope I get you in some classes next year." There's also the classic, "Don't ever change.")</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Give it a try. Go back to the pages and sounds and streets of your middle-grade self. You may end up with the perfect detail you'd been searching for. Maybe you'll end up with an entire story . . .</span><br />
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-60429542303644667152018-03-02T19:51:00.000-05:002018-03-02T19:51:48.554-05:00A Trail of Stories By Ann Haywood Leal<div class="" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirGnvWyagJzKCu4j0_GU8kU3gOnu7uHZu2AtxXMTDzUwq5HRw8OZt5y8emC94063jmNwPA2_lbiO8vIX4ApPVrUNieI11uuGrB2FxwPsupxmdSpnM1NrTzqSJaQnYljR_tua1gHxluN-zl/s1600/Ursula+LeGuin+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirGnvWyagJzKCu4j0_GU8kU3gOnu7uHZu2AtxXMTDzUwq5HRw8OZt5y8emC94063jmNwPA2_lbiO8vIX4ApPVrUNieI11uuGrB2FxwPsupxmdSpnM1NrTzqSJaQnYljR_tua1gHxluN-zl/s1600/Ursula+LeGuin+quote.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The woman was at the very end of the trail, trimming the tangled ivy from the fence behind her house. She was blocking the path, but as soon as she struck up a conversation, I was happy I had stopped. Only weeks into her retirement, she was struggling to figure out what to do with her time. She loved books and stories, and told me about two of her favorite authors who had lived just up the trail, just steps from her house. Some of the stories she had weren't on her bookshelves. They were waiting around inside her head, but had never made themselves out onto paper. I wish I'd had the wisdom of Ursula Le Guin at my fingertips as a stood next to a tangle of clipped ivy. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPH94f90SdhJ96O-8X79jcxWiSxtxmf-RtRDMEMMudr-9OQaVojRnvFt6kR8isaZK1z1Mlp-qt3PQFysY5S6JKJrCUEN3K-YQEtwcJ0jC1PUlUJUCIe4FKhlVUl0PuWfVnKjgGZWz7lKRu/s1600/Natalie+Goldberg+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="236" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPH94f90SdhJ96O-8X79jcxWiSxtxmf-RtRDMEMMudr-9OQaVojRnvFt6kR8isaZK1z1Mlp-qt3PQFysY5S6JKJrCUEN3K-YQEtwcJ0jC1PUlUJUCIe4FKhlVUl0PuWfVnKjgGZWz7lKRu/s320/Natalie+Goldberg+quote.jpg" width="213" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the risk of sounding like a Nike ad, I told her to "just do it". Just a paragraph. Don't worry about what your words look like, or even if you can't read your own handwriting. Get the words onto the paper. Natalie Goldberg says, "Write down who you were, who you are, and what you want to remember." I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Goldberg, because if you write down who you were and who you are, you have just created a character's journey of growing and changing in a story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am going to keep jogging on that path until I see the ivy trimmer again. Because I want her to tell me she's done it. She's written some words. She's a writer. </span></div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-22866416648874955092018-01-02T12:31:00.000-05:002018-01-02T12:31:07.872-05:00Make it Real by Ann Haywood Leal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's so easy. You are on the treadmill at the gym . . . on social media . . . in the shower . . . and just like that (!) you have a goal. But as a wise blogger once said:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVMitYQkkftW-8-y-8Y5KG8yvArpClss5hb5EYhTWz7o47tcFUoMl4uNNzAA-9itwrN10hP4t51_aPzWNyEeeIXNO5myW9dwj7lM1bcXQOcAmb96hOXJYHIfLNU3FWD9HPy33NOiYGUA1/s1600/goals3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVMitYQkkftW-8-y-8Y5KG8yvArpClss5hb5EYhTWz7o47tcFUoMl4uNNzAA-9itwrN10hP4t51_aPzWNyEeeIXNO5myW9dwj7lM1bcXQOcAmb96hOXJYHIfLNU3FWD9HPy33NOiYGUA1/s1600/goals3.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So definitely do that. <b>Write. It. Down</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i>I will ________.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For some reason, seeing it on paper in front of you or on your computer screen makes it real. It becomes a thing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And thank you, Kaye Dacus, for this next one: <b>Give it a set timeline</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i>I will ______ by _______.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then you've got to . . . </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhypheniA_p7nXW4GiefWL2Xpe_OnsjzNL1JzbAN4VmligD7UbUljxbsP2h2M2_I8PVeYCdFVfv2oHrpk01nbW_nWtWB279Y1ZOA12ik0ExgpGuwWrGltFgNIBt7AXuQNd_NflWeTcBJuZc3Hb/s1600/phone+a+friend.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhypheniA_p7nXW4GiefWL2Xpe_OnsjzNL1JzbAN4VmligD7UbUljxbsP2h2M2_I8PVeYCdFVfv2oHrpk01nbW_nWtWB279Y1ZOA12ik0ExgpGuwWrGltFgNIBt7AXuQNd_NflWeTcBJuZc3Hb/s1600/phone+a+friend.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>phone a friend</b>. Speak your goal OUT LOUD to a real live person. Do this even before you write down one word, because now it's not just "a thing", it's a <i>real </i>thing. You have put it out in the universe and you are now holding yourself accountable, and so is your friend.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And maybe the most important thing of all, is something that was embedded in my brain in my teacher life: <b>Make it <i>attainable</i>.</b> Sure, I'd like to write 10,000 words today, but it is probably not going to happen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What I like to do is to make it two-pronged. I set what I call my "lofty goal", which is something that is still attainable, but something that is more long-term. For example, <i>I will finish my first draft by <u>(date)</u></i><u> .</u> Then I'll choose a short-term goal, such as: <i>I will write two scenes and/or one chapter by . . .</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now GO! And STICK TO IT, PEOPLE!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxl3izNHr89CdT3fYMyc-o9zGGoqwsUZsQcKHGqHweUyTTJpS01bKG0JMrngf5f2zDlceT9YwIdH29N6EI26N6bNiIqfDBjTMpuEoVkCxtsYdo17g7sjHGjlCAoRxNex1494ocLq54Hbw/s1600/writing-goals1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="740" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxl3izNHr89CdT3fYMyc-o9zGGoqwsUZsQcKHGqHweUyTTJpS01bKG0JMrngf5f2zDlceT9YwIdH29N6EI26N6bNiIqfDBjTMpuEoVkCxtsYdo17g7sjHGjlCAoRxNex1494ocLq54Hbw/s320/writing-goals1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">HAPPY NEW WRITING YEAR!</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-66456921303563305162017-10-02T18:19:00.001-04:002017-10-02T18:27:43.307-04:00Waiting for Wednesday by Ann Haywood Leal<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWySjwx6rqGkyQcbmVUqLpJkp9T7cAKASIzz3Jw384OYgEIJ2OiQ7MvOyeylDrLXcN_wbL2mI7zvgL2pWqMDpzOvc-1w7Sd0hh9u24IAjpJUNswlswV2atQqw-Gwdqyh9dajUmEtqLen9/s1600/station+wagon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="797" data-original-width="1200" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWySjwx6rqGkyQcbmVUqLpJkp9T7cAKASIzz3Jw384OYgEIJ2OiQ7MvOyeylDrLXcN_wbL2mI7zvgL2pWqMDpzOvc-1w7Sd0hh9u24IAjpJUNswlswV2atQqw-Gwdqyh9dajUmEtqLen9/s320/station+wagon.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">She took us every Wednesday without fail. After dinner, Mom would get behind the wheel of our white Chevy station wagon, and my brother and I would scoot into the back seat with our teetering stacks of library books and head to the Auburn Public Library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was a tricky balance, checking out just the right amount of books to last until the next week. You all know that feeling: that horrible, disjointed, queasiness of being without a book. Possibly the only worse feeling would be if you had only a </span><span style="font-size: large;">few pages of the last chapter left and you had to bring it back! Sure, you could renew it, but what-if-someone-had-put-it-on-reserve-and-Mrs.-Barnhart-the-Children's-Librarian-kindly-asked-you-to-hand-it-over! Okay, there was something worse. What if it was a Nancy Drew book and Nancy had yet to tie things up with The Clue of the Tapping Heels?? </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Hayc6H-j4GypOwH1086OZ6XkrOPnxD62Fh2nCaC0vINySmS6I5sJCQwFrvVwv0hg1aWPdrEPcrqL8nElreHTTvvPOgiEcZxJqv-L67CAKpS9K0hsW379ycMYpcV2O9RwxqxdT0FTCgKX/s1600/Girl+in+Library.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Hayc6H-j4GypOwH1086OZ6XkrOPnxD62Fh2nCaC0vINySmS6I5sJCQwFrvVwv0hg1aWPdrEPcrqL8nElreHTTvvPOgiEcZxJqv-L67CAKpS9K0hsW379ycMYpcV2O9RwxqxdT0FTCgKX/s320/Girl+in+Library.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I can still smell the scent of the library foyer. Even now, my heart still speeds up when I think about taking a right through those double doors and run-walking over to the Nancy Drew section. I had already pored over the list of titles on the yellow back cover, memorizing the ones I had yet to get my hands on. And would they be on the shelf today? Would someone have finally returned the copy of Nancy's Mysterious Letter?!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But the true holy grail was two book shelves over to the left. You probably already know what I'm going to say . . . <deep breath=""> . . . THE JUDY BLUME SECTION. (You might be asking me: Ann, did that really require all caps? And of course I'd have to respond, yes. Yes, it did, because I'm not sure if I can even continue our FB friendship, if you think otherwise. :) ) And what if . . . <another a="" and="" breath="" deep="" drink="" maybe="" of="" quick="" water=""> . . . the library's only copy of ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET. was right there on the shelf?! Sometimes it could be a decoy book that fooled you. The cover might have been a slightly brighter yellow than the real thing, and for a brief moment you would have felt cheated. But when you had the real thing in your sweaty hands, it made Wednesday truly worth waiting for.</another></deep></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqe_eX8_99h7GzYVGsJAYFSNotryD20Ouk1YQt4VBN2aiysJV3ZQt1IZ3ywTiJnhSHBvKCFFW9dhjSyoNIjsA7Z_Plsa-NUKuYlxE9xWq9J4DG5NVBJLKzcSmSU8MyxwRv60yfRyYLq_Y2/s1600/children-sitting-on-top-of-bookshelves-c7ppk3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="356" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqe_eX8_99h7GzYVGsJAYFSNotryD20Ouk1YQt4VBN2aiysJV3ZQt1IZ3ywTiJnhSHBvKCFFW9dhjSyoNIjsA7Z_Plsa-NUKuYlxE9xWq9J4DG5NVBJLKzcSmSU8MyxwRv60yfRyYLq_Y2/s320/children-sitting-on-top-of-bookshelves-c7ppk3.jpg" width="210" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Have a great week, because guess what? Only two more days until Wednesday!</span><br />
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<br />Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-84050047116605307942017-09-19T11:27:00.001-04:002017-09-19T11:27:28.002-04:00I See You By Ann Haywood Leal<span style="font-size: large;">Mrs. Rinear. I've written about her before, but she was so important to me that I'm going to make everyone hear about her again. She was the one. The teacher who made me sit up straight and stand tall -- but not in the literal sense. From the first day of sixth grade, she didn't say it out loud, but she beamed it right into my mind: I see you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had stop-sign-shaped glasses and braces with headgear. Does anyone still have to wear headgear? The good kind had two thick wires that attached to a strap around the back of the neck and were inserted into your braces in front. But I had the other kind. Mine sat very visibly on the top of my head like the inside straps of a bike helmet. I didn't have to wear it all twenty-four hours of the day, but I may as well have, because it left lovely imprints in my not-so-thick hair in back.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But I loved Mrs. Rinear and I loved school. I loved learning about the solar system and fractions. I loved art and music and of course, reading -- couldn't Judy Blume put out her books any faster? I had perfect attendance and I couldn't wait to see what Mrs. Rinear was going to bring out next. Most of all, I loved creative writing. When I would sneak out the latest story I was working on, she'd quietly come by my desk. "It looks like you're done with your math," she'd say. "Why don't you take that story over there to the table in the back where it's nice and quiet?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">She was always giving me extra time to write. As the year went on, she'd ask about the stories I'd written at home. She'd ask to see them and she'd take them home and read them to her family. I can still see her handwriting on my blue notebook paper: Very nice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sadly, she moved away after my sixth grade year and I never got to see her again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">After my first book, ALSO KNOWN AS HARPER came out, I went back to my home town to do a writing workshop for teens at my old library--the magical place where I got my first library card. As can happen to both new and seasoned authors, it was ten minutes before the workshop was to begin and only one teen showed up. But then they all started filing in . . . my first grade teacher, my brother's kindergarten teacher, my junior high English teacher, the principal of my old elementary school, my second grade teacher . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"We tried to get hold of Mrs. Rinear," the principal said. "But we couldn't."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But they were all there, and I was overwhelmed. I went to the front of the room and got ready to read from my book, but it was difficult to turn the pages, because my hands were shaking. I realized that I was about to read the story I'd written to the people who taught me how to read and write. I went on and did it anyway, because their proud smiles and their steady eyes were saying, I see you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Two days later I went to the University Bookstore in Seattle to do a reading. One of my friends couldn't come so she sent her mother, Bev, in her place. I walked up to Bev to thank her for coming, and she said, "I'm not Bev." Mrs. Rinear had driven over two hours to be there. I told her that I couldn't believe she had traveled so far.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Oh, I would have driven four," she said.</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-91778165195306878442017-04-02T12:29:00.001-04:002017-04-02T12:29:06.859-04:00It Might be Right in Front of You<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Every time Spring peeks into New England and starts to uncover itself, I get this overwhelming feeling of possibility--of what <i>could </i>happen . . . what <i>might </i>happen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As I was slogging through a weekend run, (I shouldn't really call it an actual <i>run, </i>since my friend's ninety-something mother could beat me in a race, but I'm taking artistic license here, people!), I began noticing a whole slew of story possibilities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I will throw in a few settings with definite story possibilities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What could happen here, for example?</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjDkcU5h4mZNiaEuWk_sJ-i-znwFwrT7pzP-7QGx-0yx-h6FKWjodAQJ8SV4GQcu-LBiocC6HLSrhjT-S-XYegLU_ef7rfJ5MaXkMmo5KyPe_8EFIXHyXA3VYB4D0YPxEQrC6kRgPpKpN/s1600/IMG_7983.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjDkcU5h4mZNiaEuWk_sJ-i-znwFwrT7pzP-7QGx-0yx-h6FKWjodAQJ8SV4GQcu-LBiocC6HLSrhjT-S-XYegLU_ef7rfJ5MaXkMmo5KyPe_8EFIXHyXA3VYB4D0YPxEQrC6kRgPpKpN/s320/IMG_7983.JPG" width="240" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Or here?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What about under here?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQO2lHLAtbKLjzITsiU5qEyI8jxNuMIbk0Kh7rlfXoDfalp4na2ft9oLLaUWY_BIfvmfDDQipkJWVJf3iZzeKypB-DuhbEvCWUSlBi8X28h-NN3tqSAPillZD87LMUGtdppyHQ7qqM6-iJ/s1600/IMG_7984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQO2lHLAtbKLjzITsiU5qEyI8jxNuMIbk0Kh7rlfXoDfalp4na2ft9oLLaUWY_BIfvmfDDQipkJWVJf3iZzeKypB-DuhbEvCWUSlBi8X28h-NN3tqSAPillZD87LMUGtdppyHQ7qqM6-iJ/s320/IMG_7984.JPG" width="320" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the snow just uncovered this story possibility:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So . . . get out there and dig up a brand new beginning!</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-25772809488407962272017-03-02T07:01:00.002-05:002017-03-02T07:01:23.805-05:00Again??<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQ-WonzKWd12f3g0li3JG1VvowSK4XacalH4oyag1ZaLVdA8JinokdM5UA0osq6o4w1ebceRNBLoFZS7g5xXiN3Bvsh0nbvXzHLT9sx3ktojduY40xhRaQeqMUvR5rW-pcocvNU0W_NRQ/s1600/Unknown-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQ-WonzKWd12f3g0li3JG1VvowSK4XacalH4oyag1ZaLVdA8JinokdM5UA0osq6o4w1ebceRNBLoFZS7g5xXiN3Bvsh0nbvXzHLT9sx3ktojduY40xhRaQeqMUvR5rW-pcocvNU0W_NRQ/s1600/Unknown-3.jpeg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58rZe7Ak0DlR6aryli38_jHHHfExN5mlbef4saxYoUWFhxPnqlfjKVpjfpt2BwM5qPA9hKcgCbUX3aEiK5eqkNCHgEG9y4l6w7RSmxWNPIMQm_JCVrWVBQGaE4Jp9HVIM-l0TXSbxdvBi/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg58rZe7Ak0DlR6aryli38_jHHHfExN5mlbef4saxYoUWFhxPnqlfjKVpjfpt2BwM5qPA9hKcgCbUX3aEiK5eqkNCHgEG9y4l6w7RSmxWNPIMQm_JCVrWVBQGaE4Jp9HVIM-l0TXSbxdvBi/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></a>It's that time of the year when I just want to march forward into Spring. I <i>want </i>Spring. I <i>need </i>Spring. But even in my beloved home area of Seattle, where it almost <i>never </i>snows, it's refusing to be Spring. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIFPnsJ8SfBOZq2VoFJieV0cf5kvjukiK7Fbd3-SdgyP3KZ4aiIgNG5pz3Ei36puA3TKa6izrIYBNNIoULB3NbmwWtgA3XsCksmJ0sNmUTegMSgwUHIzgiEuWHaJJoJVsM04t8lPLxMnYH/s1600/Unknown-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIFPnsJ8SfBOZq2VoFJieV0cf5kvjukiK7Fbd3-SdgyP3KZ4aiIgNG5pz3Ei36puA3TKa6izrIYBNNIoULB3NbmwWtgA3XsCksmJ0sNmUTegMSgwUHIzgiEuWHaJJoJVsM04t8lPLxMnYH/s1600/Unknown-2.jpeg" /></a>So goes it with writing. You just want your draft to be done. You want it to be finished and perfect and wonderful. But you have to make yourself march forward. Stomp right through that mess of first, second, and (yes, really!) third drafts and make it even better. </div>
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But how in the world do you do that? <i>I've got other books to write, </i>you might say. <i>I can't spend my precious writing time </i>revising! </div>
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And my answer to that would be, Yes. Yes, you can. You can and should do both. As difficult as it may be, put that second draft away for a couple of weeks. And let it sit and simmer while you work on a new book. Believe me, I know it's hard to do that. Once you are done with that second draft, you are ready to turn it in. After all, you've sunk some blood and guts into that draft. It should be finished. </div>
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But those of you who know me, know that I love a good challenge. So I challenge you to wait a couple weeks . . . <i> then</i> do that third draft. I guarantee you that you will see your book with a fresh perspective, and your third draft will be sure to have a hint of Spring in it.</div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-38961694610181919902017-01-02T10:32:00.001-05:002017-01-02T10:32:13.895-05:00Claudia, Amira, and a Little Bit of Langston<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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January. A new beginning. I am holding onto that feeling of hope that my writerly and book loving friends are putting out into the world. Because we all need that right now, don't we? We all need to feel as if we are okay--that we are going to be okay. We need to feel as if the world is round again, and we will not drop off a sharp curb into a scary abyss. We need to drag ourselves up and over that ledge and band together with the extra sticky glue made of kindness and inclusiveness. Because that's what a middle-grade novel is about, isn't it? Hope. Kindness. Empathy.<br />
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So I'm offering up some of my favorite beginnings to begin 2017.<br />
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"Hold fast to dreams<br />
For if dreams die<br />
Life is a broken-winged bird<br />
That cannot fly . . . "<br />
--Langston Hughes (Okay, I cheated with this first one. Langston Hughes didn't write middle grade novels, but he was, <i>Langston Hughes, </i>so I get to.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilw6SnVV4NM1qetnBLYytDCLLEvm4nfNzliv4FFmX1kHjPuYaEnLH9dMj61L-eSY_9KO2FPldNTSgCg1RKkG3niL8qDXcP5uqKMMoMk16seCbFMsAaYuK34pzEZ95uDskOj5eWrUq2ejMZ/s1600/winnie+the+pooh.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilw6SnVV4NM1qetnBLYytDCLLEvm4nfNzliv4FFmX1kHjPuYaEnLH9dMj61L-eSY_9KO2FPldNTSgCg1RKkG3niL8qDXcP5uqKMMoMk16seCbFMsAaYuK34pzEZ95uDskOj5eWrUq2ejMZ/s320/winnie+the+pooh.gif" width="320" /></a>"Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away. That is, running away in the heat of anger with a knapsack on her back. She didn't like discomfort, even picnics were untidy and inconvenient: all those insects and the sun melting the icing on the cupcakes. Therefore, she decided that her leaving home would not be just running from somewhere but would be running to somewhere . . . "<br />
--E. L. Konigsburg (<i>From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>"We moved on the Tuesday before Labor Day. I knew what the weather was like the second I got up. I knew because I caught my mother sniffing under her arms. She always does that when it's hot and humid, to make sure her deodorant's working. I don't use deodorant yet. I don't think people start to smell bad until they're at least twelve. So I've still got a few months to go."<br />
--Judy Blume (<i>Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>"Finally, I am twelve.<br />
Old enough to wear a toob.<br />
As soon as I wake, Muma whispers a birthday wish.<br />
<i>Blessings for all the years to come, Amira.</i><br />
<i>--</i>Andrea Davis Pinkney (<i>The Red Pencil)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>"Lily Mollahan's bedroom was at the top of the stairs, the only one on the second floor. <i>The top of the house, </i>Gram always told her, <i>the top of the world.</i><br />
<i> </i>Lily sank back on her heels to look around at the blue walls and ceiling, and the gold stars pasted on here and there. Then she stretched up again, working with Poppy's paint scraper, to peel off a star that was almost beyond her reach."<br />
--Patricia Reilly Giff (<i>Lily's Crossing)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>"Today is Tet,<br />
the first day<br />
of the lunar calendar.<br />
Every Tet<br />
we eat sugary lotus seeds<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEfSuTnklylVyMOyYkLIHw_yZx5BBA5vMH_SqBB6UZUz5YGGcWtmzbTvdJDy0brXrRQWPQuHE0tTsIQeBtwfQIcYlcIJEyLJiM0Mx7C0laiSok4zb2DSNp_-hhRTsrDqIJ9YOui1eZigVu/s1600/Matilda+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEfSuTnklylVyMOyYkLIHw_yZx5BBA5vMH_SqBB6UZUz5YGGcWtmzbTvdJDy0brXrRQWPQuHE0tTsIQeBtwfQIcYlcIJEyLJiM0Mx7C0laiSok4zb2DSNp_-hhRTsrDqIJ9YOui1eZigVu/s1600/Matilda+quote.jpg" /></a>and glutinous rice cakes.<br />
We wear all new clothes<br />
even underneath.<br />
Mother warns<br />
how we act today<br />
foretells the whole year.<br />
Everyone must smile<br />
no matter how we feel.<br />
No one can sweep,<br />
for why sweep away hope?<br />
No one can splash water,<br />
for why splash away joy?"<br />
--Thanhha Lai (<i>Inside Out & Back Again)</i><br />
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I had to stop myself, because there are so many beautiful beginnings out there. Go grab your own memorable beginning. Open a middle grade novel, or let the words of Langston wash over you with drizzles of hope.<br />
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<br />Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-75832444711171593162016-11-02T20:02:00.005-04:002016-11-02T20:02:49.013-04:00Saying No to No<span style="font-size: large;">I have to admit, I enjoy a challenge. After all, what's the fun in something if you don't have to sweat a little? Especially with your writing. If others say no to your work or to parts of your story, treat it as a personal challenge. I mean <i>do </i>make it personal. Don't ignore the "no"; pay close attention to it. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxS6kQSbCHbO0ZUKwr9KLUZrldrURDYfof-3-i4UWwRr50w_0HnNsxOm9EHVo6oqJ6dwNhyQmRa2853QvdbFQiOoBREvPLsU2VLuND3NEnmmHpq5JqEl2rhs71TLyNIkXaRF4_iacPaweE/s1600/images-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxS6kQSbCHbO0ZUKwr9KLUZrldrURDYfof-3-i4UWwRr50w_0HnNsxOm9EHVo6oqJ6dwNhyQmRa2853QvdbFQiOoBREvPLsU2VLuND3NEnmmHpq5JqEl2rhs71TLyNIkXaRF4_iacPaweE/s1600/images-3.jpeg" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dig deep. Fight for your story. Really look at the comments you are getting from the literary world, including your critique partners. Ask yourself, <i>Is there a general thread or commonality there? </i> If so, try incorporating those comments and suggestions into your work. Then sit back and ask yourself, <i>Is my story now stronger and/or better? </i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPVY38VrZocbG4simpF1uDNov2Aq4li2EaGN2KcohI6p2EAiEx0Cj8yZJuAWfnyhPZUmJyggzRYGnLkZpRdfLwYYEs75TDzVkkhnvqWtcKGr0Z3GGxcQRHEnjXoI_DhURLIvdmHI6FTg_/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghPVY38VrZocbG4simpF1uDNov2Aq4li2EaGN2KcohI6p2EAiEx0Cj8yZJuAWfnyhPZUmJyggzRYGnLkZpRdfLwYYEs75TDzVkkhnvqWtcKGr0Z3GGxcQRHEnjXoI_DhURLIvdmHI6FTg_/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" /></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">Making a story work takes work. Which means that you have to be prepared to say no yourself. You have to say no to the outside distractions that are fighting to get in . . . like that Netflix series that is beckoning to you to binge watch. Or that closet that suddenly has to be organized. But once you have your story all clean, shiny and new, it will all be worth i</span>t.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0E5ezmR8rbC83eAPKMHFd6Ce2Tyahhs9Fr73HtL3mKo6HYoXZLZ6ekHmu3El3DAWcSOPUHODMf0OBU2t24dVcJS4r5cWafhBfE1DijvUSD2GRhQlRCqDb3LLMhyK5odjxmMsIpXnKvlm9/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0E5ezmR8rbC83eAPKMHFd6Ce2Tyahhs9Fr73HtL3mKo6HYoXZLZ6ekHmu3El3DAWcSOPUHODMf0OBU2t24dVcJS4r5cWafhBfE1DijvUSD2GRhQlRCqDb3LLMhyK5odjxmMsIpXnKvlm9/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></a></div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-87721094082359985522016-10-02T08:56:00.001-04:002016-10-02T08:56:51.161-04:00What Was That Noise??<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2CW_4zaLNYTJyWs1SOnN5H3OM8PDAIDcx-4GUr-6tkVIGcW3nYoof5qVOt7jQSgNP4MBSL1DDYDwOTmN7cQeaFNQiu7fxWldFvnAMCtZ9Bk-PNt9aIA-nck80rE5Agsl7N6BQOphyY_3Z/s1600/unopened+box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2CW_4zaLNYTJyWs1SOnN5H3OM8PDAIDcx-4GUr-6tkVIGcW3nYoof5qVOt7jQSgNP4MBSL1DDYDwOTmN7cQeaFNQiu7fxWldFvnAMCtZ9Bk-PNt9aIA-nck80rE5Agsl7N6BQOphyY_3Z/s320/unopened+box.jpg" width="306" /></a>My mom couldn't stand the suspense of an unopened gift or an unknown resolution in a novel. She'd try very hard to resist the impulse, but she'd almost always give in and read the end of that book.<br />
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My aunt made the most delicious fudge from a secret recipe that she refused to divulge, and she'd only make it at Christmas. My mom knew that fudge was arriving at our house around December 20, or so, and she adored and craved that fudge like the rest of us. We were all shocked one year when the box still lay unopened under the tree on December 25 . . . until my brother opened it and found an entire corner of fudge cut out and missing.<br />
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Annie Dillard once said, "Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now." It's one of my favorite writing quotes. My mom would have loved that quote, but I'm quite sure Ms. Dillard wasn't referring to suspense.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIuI_zyrrPkSMuU0pt5j1rsjrxxBa8ZwCCk9HHxEH_psjqMVBHUvtdez2ayTZunTERSXagT-XNe7krPu2si1l5YFBr6I-BXszPy7pYYHehUe-kM_rjcZf-AATJ5p6l16JtbA2O9HFABm-l/s1600/stephen+kind+suspense+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIuI_zyrrPkSMuU0pt5j1rsjrxxBa8ZwCCk9HHxEH_psjqMVBHUvtdez2ayTZunTERSXagT-XNe7krPu2si1l5YFBr6I-BXszPy7pYYHehUe-kM_rjcZf-AATJ5p6l16JtbA2O9HFABm-l/s1600/stephen+kind+suspense+quote.jpg" /></a><br />
Suspense has to be stretched out until the rubber band is just about to snap.<br />
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What's inside the box?<br />
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What's behind the door?<br />
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What's around the corner?<br />
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Didn't you hear that?<br />
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You wake up in the darkness of your room . . . Did you just dream that voice? . . . Or did it come from downstairs?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguXfldCXZ9n0T6Ro8cvPyqNmlKE_FndswR8ej7llFBPFwSY5i7m99HtUoZSRqpLTJUXMPeJcrsf0SjyjWzvF0586YDjsZmh1XvUWDf3mLGV1fqAKfV1wbj6-Ia3UA6G2QUpieez-__gCyP/s1600/Lee+child+suspense+quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguXfldCXZ9n0T6Ro8cvPyqNmlKE_FndswR8ej7llFBPFwSY5i7m99HtUoZSRqpLTJUXMPeJcrsf0SjyjWzvF0586YDjsZmh1XvUWDf3mLGV1fqAKfV1wbj6-Ia3UA6G2QUpieez-__gCyP/s1600/Lee+child+suspense+quote.jpg" /></a><br />
We have to give it away a trickle at a time, but do give a glimpse to keep the reader wondering and turning those pages. Give a quick flash of what is around that corner. Make them want to sneak into that box of fudge.<br />
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I leave you with another quote and a challenge from the incomparable Stephen King:<br />
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-61054366521194463822016-09-02T06:48:00.002-04:002016-09-02T06:48:03.104-04:00Going Over to the Dark Side . . . Sort Of<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Character flaws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so should your characters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Like our children, we want our characters to be perfect, so we naturally want to give them streamlined, worry-free lives where they do no wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But really, where’s the fun in that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to have growth and change in our characters, otherwise, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there is no story</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a great big yawner from the first page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A long time ago I got a handwritten note on my returned manuscript from an editor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can still remember it, word for word:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Your character has no redeeming qualities.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEfzpG_FnO5SXCoqic2IJA7HJeidYNJuIzdtJDmw-saSZPflhlYoYWjije9IlbSZlPcRT4ofmF-EaHG0TCHAei_9lbsfMHD2ZYTsEDC9wi2_fKVoH6v_rU1QM9JdQyzkhFpEFYBvI27By/s1600/nursejackie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEfzpG_FnO5SXCoqic2IJA7HJeidYNJuIzdtJDmw-saSZPflhlYoYWjije9IlbSZlPcRT4ofmF-EaHG0TCHAei_9lbsfMHD2ZYTsEDC9wi2_fKVoH6v_rU1QM9JdQyzkhFpEFYBvI27By/s1600/nursejackie.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Wow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess I went completely to the dark side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically this editor was saying she hated my main character, and not necessarily in a Voldemort Darth Vader love-to-hate sort of way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">So . . . we need to be somewhere in the middle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only way we can do that is to really know our characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used to think I could get to know my character as I schlepped through my story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that can get me in a whole world of trouble, sending my character every which way in a confusing story world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_tCM8vX4WLggnUwN2rqK2tQBNCWGWQbyVX03_s7e6Hk-hVuNbaeKK7IdxYhmmjEDE7rDbgyapQ-mZBAnJbeMwgmSUeR08R15mF2wNJL-uJoW-mPwrLRblNoNeJ7PaNPLCQyQF3TGFu8H/s1600/truthand+lies.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_tCM8vX4WLggnUwN2rqK2tQBNCWGWQbyVX03_s7e6Hk-hVuNbaeKK7IdxYhmmjEDE7rDbgyapQ-mZBAnJbeMwgmSUeR08R15mF2wNJL-uJoW-mPwrLRblNoNeJ7PaNPLCQyQF3TGFu8H/s320/truthand+lies.png" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I will now defer to the late great Ray Bradbury who once said, “Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day.” –THEN start your story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of that information about your character will never make its way into your book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will stay inside your head, simmering there as you write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will, in fact, affect all of your writing, because what you know about your character will come out in bits and pieces with their dialogue, with the way they walk across the room, the way they interact with the other characters, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I am going to leave you with a writing prompt to get you started:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Darth Vader and Pollyanna had a baby . . . Go!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-16709469748200702092016-08-07T15:54:00.002-04:002016-08-07T15:55:08.098-04:00The Summer I Tempted Fate<span style="font-size: large;">It was forbidden, which meant it beckoned to us all the more that summer between fourth and fifth grade.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So far, we'd made it to the very edge a few times, but none of that counted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sure, there were stories of kids who had made it, unscathed, but then there were the stories that might be considered in the urban legend category . . . kids from some other neighborhood who had been swallowed up by the mere dirt of the embankment, or who had fallen all the way to the berry fields at the bottom, torn apart by sticker bushes, both arms and legs broken.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7M9Vnce_vVhAD7iqz91Qg7Rb4AeI7A3PTIh6Cie-xJ-1ybvt0sl2PmnnFpatlIznuDaHq_s3ZuRUar3tz6CIVo9WyUNOXjokJpGnpskDGhX0ZkvQ3q40cr7XxJKGfxCx4JFzJjsElMDP/s1600/sting+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS7M9Vnce_vVhAD7iqz91Qg7Rb4AeI7A3PTIh6Cie-xJ-1ybvt0sl2PmnnFpatlIznuDaHq_s3ZuRUar3tz6CIVo9WyUNOXjokJpGnpskDGhX0ZkvQ3q40cr7XxJKGfxCx4JFzJjsElMDP/s320/sting+ray.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But this was<i> our</i> summer. We were prepared to be a little battered and bruised, but we were going to make it. We rode our ten-speeds and Stingrays over the fir needled streets of Forest Knoll and past the ranch houses of Forest Villa, with confidence that can only be possessed by a pack of unencumbered ten and eleven-year-olds in the heat of summer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We stashed our bikes in the safety of some thick rhododendron bushes and headed to where the grass stopped and the cliff began.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">From our points of view, the cliff looked like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO2qp7SxzDT28OXgJlxwm6mhIt1c4I0bkNDhdU54V6Zq61NRyGWM-b198mESW_QlaAHpc3ePHlBkhL74rqGs4Qkdrkxq9LDBMexGiGh755yN3oSN2aN9EqZj9h0pj2_oyXhZ9NQSwB1ChL/s1600/very+steep+cliff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO2qp7SxzDT28OXgJlxwm6mhIt1c4I0bkNDhdU54V6Zq61NRyGWM-b198mESW_QlaAHpc3ePHlBkhL74rqGs4Qkdrkxq9LDBMexGiGh755yN3oSN2aN9EqZj9h0pj2_oyXhZ9NQSwB1ChL/s320/very+steep+cliff.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Or actually like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHhiV0NdqKA-QruiIS3xDAXQJUAvYPJ1yN-GFJCsXrCPR22LQuLuIPNf3I6bSWBwUW-WwCQlKI5-UIrBskBaUyeGPczU2a1hB7Yyh4ABAT0AKRbVuuKVrCLA8S2zBSlGTpPC5qt-fbljA/s1600/edge-of-a-cliff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxHhiV0NdqKA-QruiIS3xDAXQJUAvYPJ1yN-GFJCsXrCPR22LQuLuIPNf3I6bSWBwUW-WwCQlKI5-UIrBskBaUyeGPczU2a1hB7Yyh4ABAT0AKRbVuuKVrCLA8S2zBSlGTpPC5qt-fbljA/s320/edge-of-a-cliff.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With Pixie Stix as our own form of Clif bar energy, we edged our way down sideways at times, and sometimes backwards. But we made it. We made it all the way down to the valley at the bottom and back up again, neighborhood victors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We told our story to all who would listen, pausing dramatically as we described the rusty car without wheels and doors (quite possibly haunted) that had somehow made it halfway down. We described the treacherous sinkholes toward the bottom (most definitely filled with quicksand) that we had all somehow managed to avoid. And we made the solemn vow to never go back down again -- at least not without each other. Fate couldn't be tempted twice, could it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Only later on in my life did I see the cliff and the valley in a different way:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLOt0Cs9leWAKaQsFUeSxJLyIqEkxZGCZGmZmEfCMcu6dqUbGtL4EQF5ph5kwUjgiyaz_vFP9156XUxQmAL_Dpw75yuxiujdJ8rV-Ge3iqQOA2auI78DqPrrILy2F7FABCDg4_jQpAXyrz/s1600/cliff+three.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLOt0Cs9leWAKaQsFUeSxJLyIqEkxZGCZGmZmEfCMcu6dqUbGtL4EQF5ph5kwUjgiyaz_vFP9156XUxQmAL_Dpw75yuxiujdJ8rV-Ge3iqQOA2auI78DqPrrILy2F7FABCDg4_jQpAXyrz/s320/cliff+three.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsjJpllFRej3ZVVup-H6Eo-57mUOsMCu-3L9wqkBLh_DvjjoRpSgjaTSzArGU0F-A32f7nlY0VQ6sDwM_NGsNaDa_Sk8mSScbcj4GjXyjMaALlekXwyCmT7FKXxsj8QamBDWniiRxUxfe/s1600/cliff+with+chair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsjJpllFRej3ZVVup-H6Eo-57mUOsMCu-3L9wqkBLh_DvjjoRpSgjaTSzArGU0F-A32f7nlY0VQ6sDwM_NGsNaDa_Sk8mSScbcj4GjXyjMaALlekXwyCmT7FKXxsj8QamBDWniiRxUxfe/s320/cliff+with+chair.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> But no picture or adult point of view can do anything to change or spoil that victorious summer of my eleventh year.</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-90067100484889332842016-05-02T07:57:00.001-04:002016-05-02T07:57:04.426-04:00" . . . Are You Telling Me You Built a Time Machine . . . Out of a DeLorean?. . ."<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Many of my writer and creative-type friends have just drifted into their REM states when I get up in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sun hasn’t even opened one eye, but I stumble down the stairs to feed my cats and open my laptop.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglKnuvBj6cZ2w-blZhrEyvpQYbJ486dYGlQ5bmajUGkL7_KVG7zQnRZsxJjy4M3gGJrYTsxoTvNPi85XxV-XU1flKMt4ucw2k6xh3CNZTSojR3iXKngXDi488IdphPV5xjz2Wx8vk01VOz/s1600/Boo+with+computer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglKnuvBj6cZ2w-blZhrEyvpQYbJ486dYGlQ5bmajUGkL7_KVG7zQnRZsxJjy4M3gGJrYTsxoTvNPi85XxV-XU1flKMt4ucw2k6xh3CNZTSojR3iXKngXDi488IdphPV5xjz2Wx8vk01VOz/s320/Boo+with+computer.jpg" width="239" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It’s for a pretty simple reason, really.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’ve been doing this for several years now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess I’m trying to stomp on the popular refrain of busy people:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There are only 24 hours in each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Here’s my trick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Getting up before everyone except my cats adds minutes and hours to my day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, I don’t have a plutonium-filled DeLorean in my garage (unfortunately!), but I am adding minutes and hours to my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">writing </i>day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDnRaPUUhSdwDPT20pcH4fQx6oB1rxqdIHxDLtjPtep9OD5IhqAuAIPodEDCmUCjr65cvLj6dDiItXD-adQgPC_zZzMkjFr0OnXMJdXX8xHsV5qy9wiB7nCdWgTLYo3q1vv9VcUhu2fDYV/s1600/2-back-to-the-future-marty-doc-delorean-large_trans%252B%252BwMpl-Jpdv5EMZZkofEupHLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDnRaPUUhSdwDPT20pcH4fQx6oB1rxqdIHxDLtjPtep9OD5IhqAuAIPodEDCmUCjr65cvLj6dDiItXD-adQgPC_zZzMkjFr0OnXMJdXX8xHsV5qy9wiB7nCdWgTLYo3q1vv9VcUhu2fDYV/s320/2-back-to-the-future-marty-doc-delorean-large_trans%252B%252BwMpl-Jpdv5EMZZkofEupHLdu0TL-Cg_AMOUqySXmFgU.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It’s the way I have to do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I teach first grade, and there’s something<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned forever ago from my mom who taught six and seven-year-olds before me:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they take more energy than you thought existed in your mind and body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a wonderful, satisfying type of exhaustion, but it leaves very little for the end of my day.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nY_o6fzT4vi_xGoEf2p8F9A8zbfhptQJaUECO8MXxmeNmeLf-nXhLlsKKfAYP3HW-AJVBmcnvOoFyakLdEr3Gvb2YA77SMkCaU2N8XzYWvMv_5YShkyAvWXnWiQ0xJZBIFV4nJgbVfrQ/s1600/caroo-cat-cats-computer-cute-Favim.com-337157.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nY_o6fzT4vi_xGoEf2p8F9A8zbfhptQJaUECO8MXxmeNmeLf-nXhLlsKKfAYP3HW-AJVBmcnvOoFyakLdEr3Gvb2YA77SMkCaU2N8XzYWvMv_5YShkyAvWXnWiQ0xJZBIFV4nJgbVfrQ/s320/caroo-cat-cats-computer-cute-Favim.com-337157.jpg" width="239" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">But if I didn’t carve out that writing time, I’d be a different kind of exhausted – the cranky, shuffle-around-mumbling kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And it’s true, unless you are meeting Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, you’re going to have to give up something to create your own writing minutes and hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be sleep or a kind-of-favorite TV show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It could be your surfing time (and I don’t mean on the beaches of sunny California).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It might be a little uncomfortable at first, like a little pinch or a scrape-your-knee-and-need-your-mother-to-blow-on-it way, but you can push through it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should </i>push through it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Because when you do, you are left with a book . . . or a poem . . .<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or a song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s worth every bit of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyZ5S-mxkNVv6P-G8LbolZu8BkIKooIcxBoYoSK5sXrMae8YbhpJYQKo-p1zRPa4d7lVzHE9-wL6nr0-PamLDmIwmJSFLG8UBWhlHIaM1ZoMfy5b9kaGqiDcZ6dX6RyhiVI4Y0ghHpBGP/s1600/prince-purple-rain_wide-9ddede15e2496e395bd1edfa926fab4f2f0e55ea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyZ5S-mxkNVv6P-G8LbolZu8BkIKooIcxBoYoSK5sXrMae8YbhpJYQKo-p1zRPa4d7lVzHE9-wL6nr0-PamLDmIwmJSFLG8UBWhlHIaM1ZoMfy5b9kaGqiDcZ6dX6RyhiVI4Y0ghHpBGP/s320/prince-purple-rain_wide-9ddede15e2496e395bd1edfa926fab4f2f0e55ea.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-39536211007570062632016-04-03T08:09:00.001-04:002016-04-03T08:09:27.004-04:00Are You Listening?<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Oh, it is interesting, the creative process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where was this story before I wrote it down?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It certainly wasn’t in my head.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--Gore Vidal</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I think the idea process is the part of writing that I love most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I like to go to a worn, well-traveled area and sit still with my notebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Train stations can be perfect for this kind of brainstorming and idea-mining, because of the combinations and variety of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be those who are actually going somewhere, and those who are biding their time, wishing for a destination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then I listen -- I mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really </i>listen – to voice inflections and accents, to tones and volume.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is that woman in the corner <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>worried about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is that young man on the steps so excited about? What is making that couple on the bench so angry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that woman with the cell phone imbedded in her cheek . . . what is the person on the other end saying?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’ll try to notice quirks and facial expressions, body language and eye rolling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I’ll ask myself, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How can I use this?</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfu4BvSjnCcJ-gHy6DQJr9aORC_NejCR8UKzzT3MG1E7fTOocvX9gg_eXiDB6ZTE_W5jcNTLOdBJBE9H1Upet9MCg40PyjzoCtI2LWIlKJveeVes-XQPZzcq1rE25lIuZxj_MbmDWJ2Im/s1600/Harriet+the+spy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfu4BvSjnCcJ-gHy6DQJr9aORC_NejCR8UKzzT3MG1E7fTOocvX9gg_eXiDB6ZTE_W5jcNTLOdBJBE9H1Upet9MCg40PyjzoCtI2LWIlKJveeVes-XQPZzcq1rE25lIuZxj_MbmDWJ2Im/s1600/Harriet+the+spy.jpeg" /></span></a><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How do I know if that person or that line is worthy of a story?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It hangs around in my head for a good while….it’s that phrase I can’t stop thinking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes me wonder, or smile, or cringe, and I have to write it down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One thing that is important for me is to keep myself open to new ideas –not just at the brewing, beginning stages of a story or book, but throughout my writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what starts to round out my characters as I go, and what fills up my story, as a whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even after I have that initial motivating idea, I try to keep the brainstorming going. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We take notes on what we see and hear and audition them on the page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trying out new ideas takes risk and guts, because you can’t leave them floating around in your head. You have to be willing to take it one step further and put them down on the page.</span></div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-53884363268653216262016-03-04T06:09:00.004-05:002016-03-04T06:09:55.921-05:00Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqIM-Ed9HJqPXCae6ZL7xPTesYKiJKQkWwImBsqLAgKsOTmHdTGeiIAt98VhqkZWrH76eErx_aODYrpQfxVRdWySCs3UWXJ7yQZ_3APsaNpRPcmqQSzxJLo4Y4XFAFt4AQL-idr7MeWRb/s1600/MarchMadnessGameofThrones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBqIM-Ed9HJqPXCae6ZL7xPTesYKiJKQkWwImBsqLAgKsOTmHdTGeiIAt98VhqkZWrH76eErx_aODYrpQfxVRdWySCs3UWXJ7yQZ_3APsaNpRPcmqQSzxJLo4Y4XFAFt4AQL-idr7MeWRb/s1600/MarchMadnessGameofThrones.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I know next to nothing about basketball, but when March Madness hits, I see people scrambling to predict who will win. They even put down money to back their frenzied calculations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It can be like that with that first idea when you are writing. It explodes in a mad frenzy of possibilities. All we want is that big win at the end. And we want to get to the end. As soon as possible. Now. Do not pass Go. Do not pause to collect the two hundred dollars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When we are first getting our story down on paper, it may be fragmented. As my writer friends know, I am a fan of working in coffee shops, and I use coffee shop analogies freely and often. So . . . imagine a busy coffee shop—in a big city. You have just moved to the neighborhood and you are visiting it for the first time. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmFYw05FZSmSD_WHvMtCNdSLrzxh_KGd71YPuEGTDdf1k3HalWhnQD4YOGV_IC48JXBU2wBaOKIRlonfUcPMSnnMhcBNL3ydrdmh5WFrBzR9qD3uhGV6T7oo4z-IK22diSIGoKDa_kROx/s1600/writertossingpapers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmFYw05FZSmSD_WHvMtCNdSLrzxh_KGd71YPuEGTDdf1k3HalWhnQD4YOGV_IC48JXBU2wBaOKIRlonfUcPMSnnMhcBNL3ydrdmh5WFrBzR9qD3uhGV6T7oo4z-IK22diSIGoKDa_kROx/s1600/writertossingpapers.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">There is a lot going on, but a great deal of it is just a thin surface layer. You go into the coffee shop and the customers are all your characters, major and minor. You see them—you might see what they are wearing, but you really don’t know anything about them yet. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHJrrmnQgGVvRGwvVItkTz-qbEsuoC4jEK6RJg5O0k7npmZd_4ASkQNB-OvuzaSenT0Dmt8p2lHEBGwApIitC-bXKCzsqQW8AyD3vHBYCp5iRGn_9cHf9Y8fnF0RqUfYOH5UEGpY5xc-4/s1600/crazy+typist.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuHJrrmnQgGVvRGwvVItkTz-qbEsuoC4jEK6RJg5O0k7npmZd_4ASkQNB-OvuzaSenT0Dmt8p2lHEBGwApIitC-bXKCzsqQW8AyD3vHBYCp5iRGn_9cHf9Y8fnF0RqUfYOH5UEGpY5xc-4/s1600/crazy+typist.png" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You hear bits and pieces of conversations, but you aren’t interacting with anyone but the barista or the guy at the counter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You are seated in a corner by yourself, trying to make sense of all that is going on around you. People are on their laptops, not paying any attention to you. People are in pairs and groups, having their own conversations. You are excited about being in this new place, but you really aren’t comfortable yet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The next day, things get a little more familiar. You notice some people from the day before. Someone gives you a recognizing nod. You start to notice how the customers are interacting with each other. You sense the tension between the couple by the window. You notice the woman off to the side appears to have slept in her clothes. You start to wonder about their stories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Each day, each revision, you add another layer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You may think you have your story down pat—especially if you are an extensive note taker or an outliner. I heard about a writer, who wrote her entire novel in her head while she was gardening. Finished the entire thing. Then she went home and put the words down on paper. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We all want to be done. It’s human nature to want to see a job through to the end. It is the best feeling in the world to type THE END. But for a writer, the first time you type those words, it usually just means the beginning. It’s the beginning of your layering process. The beginning of your revision. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I used to hate it. But I look forward to it now. It means my words are turning into a real story. So don’t get sucked in by the March Madness. Slow down and enjoy the ride.</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-60675689410222391902016-02-07T10:58:00.003-05:002016-02-07T11:00:08.991-05:00The Post Where I Shamelessly Use Field of Dream Quotes<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">In February we are given a day of possibilities at the beginning, with an extra day at the end during a leap year. My challenge for everyone this month is to combine Groundhog’s Day where anything can happen, with that gift of an extra day, and write without caring what anyone else thinks. Write with abandon. Write as if you have all the time in the world, because you sort of do. You have that extra day, that anything-can-happen day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1_B5TT0Q1D3FBfDYvxV5dz1AL-JiBQP6knyjwzJ4e1hBggN0mUKh5YbupkLBjDWLymHD-Wr2uESt3Ymf0rCG1bkrjsqmSRn_wn4K5sdNuJmOWHTDQQRq1wRxEMwa__lRXWUydJIjuE2A/s1600/field+of+dreams+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu1_B5TT0Q1D3FBfDYvxV5dz1AL-JiBQP6knyjwzJ4e1hBggN0mUKh5YbupkLBjDWLymHD-Wr2uESt3Ymf0rCG1bkrjsqmSRn_wn4K5sdNuJmOWHTDQQRq1wRxEMwa__lRXWUydJIjuE2A/s320/field+of+dreams+1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">But here’s the only rule: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">Write What Only You Know. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">Annie Dillard said, “A writer looking for subjects inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all. Strange seizures beset us. Frank Conroy loves his yo-yo tricks, Emily Dickinson her slant of light….” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">She also asks the thought-provoking question, “Why do you never find anything written about that idiosyncratic thought you avert to, about your fascination with something no one else understands? Because it is up to you. There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain, because you have never read it on any page; there you begin.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">You can make something interesting to your readers because of your own fascination with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">What are the everyday things that intrigue you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">Think about sitting in a restaurant or in a train station, or on the subway. What makes you give a person a longer-than-usual look? Why are you drawn to that person? Is it their distinct, unusual beauty? Maybe. But more likely it’s something else—because you are a writer. Maybe they have a bald spot on the side of their head that they are trying to cover. But it’s not a man’s comb-over. It’s a woman’s. You take it one step further, because you are a writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">What foods are you drawn to?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">What places fascinate you so much, you want to stop your car—even though it might not be a convenient or a safe place to stop it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">You take the everyday--something you encounter or pass each day, and point it out in your writing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">Chances are, you have no idea why you are drawn to certain foods or people or places or events. You just are. But that draw is your key. You write about it, and you make these fascinations your readers’, as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-size: large;">(Remember, you’ve got that extra day here. You can take your time.) Dare to take the mundane and sneak it to the forefront. But do it as only you can do. Forgive me for massacring a line from “Field of Dreams”, but … If you write it, they will read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-47337839981498329362015-12-02T06:39:00.001-05:002015-12-02T06:47:46.936-05:00Go Ahead . . . Try It! <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s not that bad, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people just want to do it and get it over with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some look forward to it eagerly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Adding details to our writing is like decorating for the holidays.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you immerse yourself into it, you are hooked – and so will be your readers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLV0sTt_mqAPArnqMnJhgKzP-sN4K1lUWLY1OjIhOX32x0gWacQLyMHAn5Trj9eQnruX9DXvMHSMPW74i0_sZnpJfXyEEr2E3eiTCmQjhgVG7kJJUNZvpG2B9vBzK4AEYYAphr9W4eCDQ/s1600/openinggift.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLV0sTt_mqAPArnqMnJhgKzP-sN4K1lUWLY1OjIhOX32x0gWacQLyMHAn5Trj9eQnruX9DXvMHSMPW74i0_sZnpJfXyEEr2E3eiTCmQjhgVG7kJJUNZvpG2B9vBzK4AEYYAphr9W4eCDQ/s1600/openinggift.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>C.S. Lewis said,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us </i>say ‘delightful’ when we ‘ve read the description.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqEkFe0qSlJywi9MMokhLJgqBVpvrutgGnNCSLA09hwK1n5IUdroAlqzEOjFMK_orq-MPTY5uiH1LyGr4vJxyxEANoNxINzD9vHOfpqwo6vNRGJxYroIww5bXPFmIuqyShXBl0hSWq7zc/s1600/bookshelftree.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsqEkFe0qSlJywi9MMokhLJgqBVpvrutgGnNCSLA09hwK1n5IUdroAlqzEOjFMK_orq-MPTY5uiH1LyGr4vJxyxEANoNxINzD9vHOfpqwo6vNRGJxYroIww5bXPFmIuqyShXBl0hSWq7zc/s1600/bookshelftree.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If you add the right detail, just a tiny word or two, you can make the reader laugh, or cry, or catch their breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Finding those perfect details isn’t as hard as it sounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try to notice the little things around you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is that man doing in the car next to you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he texting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he weeping?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is he picking his nose?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When you add details to your story, it becomes personal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It goes from being any old story to being personal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s when it becomes real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Maybe you are writing about the lady next door taking her garbage out in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get nosey with those characters. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask yourself those impolite questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s in that garbage and why does she have to take it out every morning?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s that stain on her robe?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are her curtains open or closed, and how come she keeps her curtains closed in the daytime?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Try to notice those little details—I call it thinking like a poet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favorite poets use very spare language to make the story come to life in the poem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make every word count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They pay attention to subtle things, like the way someone’s voice goes up or down a little when they say certain things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or the way their voice catches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t be afraid to channel Gladys Kravitz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spy on those people in their stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s out front of the house?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are all those cars in the driveway all of a sudden?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s going on over there?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Is there a death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A birth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The cars are coming and going at all hours of the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they drug dealers? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t be satisfied with just steps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make them creak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t be satisfied with just a classroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jazz it up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put some contraband in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make someone throw up or want to throw up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Details can be deceptive, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can trick us—they can trick the reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can drop a tiny detail in and see if the reader notices—a bit of foreshadowing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7PCVyby0lXemn7fZQeHCxr0juUGNgFQC44Bct6Q0fXs9y7KGRgg2KqkYkL-kVvMuW0LW8dPDV6FsQduDrm8s4JXzap16SdMuPU9UmhzYRqweQrMSAX9PPtdwIlUvWjI2iEv-mbxODhdJh/s1600/booktree.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7PCVyby0lXemn7fZQeHCxr0juUGNgFQC44Bct6Q0fXs9y7KGRgg2KqkYkL-kVvMuW0LW8dPDV6FsQduDrm8s4JXzap16SdMuPU9UmhzYRqweQrMSAX9PPtdwIlUvWjI2iEv-mbxODhdJh/s1600/booktree.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I leave you with some holiday cheer from Mark Twain:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and lightning-bug.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now get back to your decorating!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-54036629701527711642015-11-01T19:29:00.002-05:002015-11-02T05:29:00.441-05:00What's it Doing in the Back of Your Refrigerator??<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcVTyYyGP99g1vhB7zOYUFzI7UOFJMdDX_rRoosKNJ15JXoJW_CTjEvQ2agScIFeFS4pERVmHqmdeTWThlyE-CHMpys4W0NBM-mAvqR78z7qCGvLjlX5VoUlLOvQqdh-AtS0Ug55MwcBV/s1600/Nov.2typewriter.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBcVTyYyGP99g1vhB7zOYUFzI7UOFJMdDX_rRoosKNJ15JXoJW_CTjEvQ2agScIFeFS4pERVmHqmdeTWThlyE-CHMpys4W0NBM-mAvqR78z7qCGvLjlX5VoUlLOvQqdh-AtS0Ug55MwcBV/s1600/Nov.2typewriter.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqoWHDrYAJ85Uvc4cWLkq5hIWOLaYn4Hh5jWQ_eAvpKtL9t49NDbcSZS8qVjOzN6trT1VBud9eds-nsRezWr7IraNcQAbJWVtOwtnzltgvE-eAkIljxwLzhB6W_jFebkyMpFn-wdCjySZa/s1600/Nov.2cookbook.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqoWHDrYAJ85Uvc4cWLkq5hIWOLaYn4Hh5jWQ_eAvpKtL9t49NDbcSZS8qVjOzN6trT1VBud9eds-nsRezWr7IraNcQAbJWVtOwtnzltgvE-eAkIljxwLzhB6W_jFebkyMpFn-wdCjySZa/s1600/Nov.2cookbook.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Annie Dillard says, “ . . . spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good … give it, give it all, give it now. Something more will arise for later, something better.” This wisdom has become one of my favorite recipes for writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I love this, because I am guilty of saving my writing. But really, for what am I saving it? A perfectly good idea can end up like back-of-the-refrigerator food--something that was perfectly good on Saturday, but ended up getting stashed away and wasted by next Friday. I have a million little notebooks—I always have one going, as do most of the writers I know. But if a good line comes to you—or a great character idea—or some fantastic setting details, find a way to put it in right now. Don’t let it disappear forever into the pages of your journal; get it down on a page of your book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">H.G. Wells had another great writing recipe. He said, “If you are in difficulties with a book, try the element of surprise; attack it at an hour when it isn’t expecting it.”</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO58fEG7vxCgVFY2RgrNLgNm_Fsm4LclDJ7HvKGW9I06oDpQfv6JHsZDy72AYhiG-WKrpZcWHXjz-4cYHNGaJ3KZSW_X9-WkjSC6HPRXFUBJUZrUcALJdWiqUbrqvKDfiQDfjhm8j_X5mB/s1600/Nov.2womanattypewriter.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO58fEG7vxCgVFY2RgrNLgNm_Fsm4LclDJ7HvKGW9I06oDpQfv6JHsZDy72AYhiG-WKrpZcWHXjz-4cYHNGaJ3KZSW_X9-WkjSC6HPRXFUBJUZrUcALJdWiqUbrqvKDfiQDfjhm8j_X5mB/s1600/Nov.2womanattypewriter.jpeg" /></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">I am a big proponent of writing at the same time every day. It may just be a mind game that I play with myself, but I truly believe that my body and mind get used to this 5:00 a.m. time. The words automatically start trickling out after I’ve had my first few sips of coffee. The routine of it all works for me. However, we have all gotten to a point in our story where either we, or the story feels stagnant. So try again. Try it at 5:00 p.m., instead. If you are too tired at this time, because your first writing time of the day was at 5 a.m., go for a walk. Let the ideas start to flow. Do what makes your mind wander to your story. Walking, running, riding your bike, cooking, baking, knitting…be open to it, and your characters might just start talking to you.</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-59206723161978884422015-10-02T06:25:00.004-04:002015-10-02T06:26:53.506-04:00Trick . . . or Treat . . . ?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;">It's easy, right? Just treat your readers with your tricks. We beat ourselves up and rack our crazy writer brains trying to come up with the latest wowing trick.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Writer, Merrill Markoe says she struggles with her tendency toward “contrarianism”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij104PMIu5P7LcA12JmdYIGug-94SJnmK45tHo1bB5vqWr19U2rFIHu-8tigRTMY1whJtFleGFXtxJYEEExHdJBV4Qj35AWfjYRiPOiMR3rMqJGN8cOsj-7rj7qEBZQ_Una60YFFgaMP_V/s1600/trick+or+treat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij104PMIu5P7LcA12JmdYIGug-94SJnmK45tHo1bB5vqWr19U2rFIHu-8tigRTMY1whJtFleGFXtxJYEEExHdJBV4Qj35AWfjYRiPOiMR3rMqJGN8cOsj-7rj7qEBZQ_Una60YFFgaMP_V/s1600/trick+or+treat.jpg" /></span></a><span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">“If I know there’s something I’m supposed to be doing or saying or wearing, I feel compelled to resist—particularly with creative endeavors like writing. If I see an obvious punch line or plotline driving toward me, I can’t help but make a sharp left turn into the unexpected. I don’t like to replicate what I’ve seen done before—I don’t like to give people what they expect. I think it’s my job to come up with a surprising angle or add some personal twist.” –Merrill Markoe<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">She made me think about how some people are trying to follow the market and write what they think is “hot” or selling right then. Of course we all want to sell our work, but if we aren’t writing from our gut and our heart, it shows in our work. It ends up feeling derivative. We need to make our work our own, with our original, distinctive voice. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">In comedy, I think one of the reason’s that David Letterman has had such success, even early on in his career, is that he felt a strong rapport with his audience, making them feel as if they were in on the joke.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">As a fiction writer, that’s exactly what you are doing. You are making the audience feel as if they are in on the story. –You are sucking them in without their even knowing it, from the very first page—even the very first line.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nobody likes to feel as if they are on the outside, looking in, and not a part of things. Remember how you felt as a kid, or even as an adult, when you were at a party, or on the playground, and you weren’t included in a conversation. Or you felt as if you had entered in the middle or towards the end and you didn’t have the details to jump in. Sometimes, the people were doing that on purpose, hoping that you would go away, or wanting to control the group, giving them the upper hand. When this happens in a story, the reader never gets a chance to connect with the characters, and may, in fact just put the book down. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">One of the ways you can include your readers in your story—letting them feel as if they are “in the know”—is to give them things to which they can relate. You have to dig deeply in order to do this. This doesn’t always happen for me until I’m heavily into my revision process. Again, you have to climb into the minds of your characters—not just your main character, but all of your characters—and figure out how they would feel and react to each situation in which you put them. What you are shooting for is for your readers to think, “I’ve felt like that, too. That’s just like me, or that’s just like when I …”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvTXCQlXeT5nlvdV0f5uCghN0d7iK0M7226mCc690G042ZA_qcaLYE0-KfPZzxGrScyYogHwf3_sP014JufKuplxtMAWS-0Qgilk3S2kJ1ncfpx-W4BBDVGZLIgxmBa6YHTuwW2q4htkst/s1600/Jack-o-Lantern-Candy-Bowl-i-love-my-disorganized-life1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvTXCQlXeT5nlvdV0f5uCghN0d7iK0M7226mCc690G042ZA_qcaLYE0-KfPZzxGrScyYogHwf3_sP014JufKuplxtMAWS-0Qgilk3S2kJ1ncfpx-W4BBDVGZLIgxmBa6YHTuwW2q4htkst/s320/Jack-o-Lantern-Candy-Bowl-i-love-my-disorganized-life1.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;">So dig to the bottom of that plastic pumpkin. That's where the best treats are hiding out--waiting to be discovered.</span></div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-45478870724722543482015-09-02T06:10:00.001-04:002015-09-02T06:10:33.134-04:00A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to LaGuardia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEWTrq5A8kQ9jGqgd7w0zJ8FxFrU40P1luTud0QvdAdysQfkr3APIwuS6iFL711SSArl2S1nv4sVq5U5XWy62kxdj1f00O3CwFhM8OfkoR9UoMvhzbhWnMy2XG0g6TVj4zF0IebjqFNK-/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPEWTrq5A8kQ9jGqgd7w0zJ8FxFrU40P1luTud0QvdAdysQfkr3APIwuS6iFL711SSArl2S1nv4sVq5U5XWy62kxdj1f00O3CwFhM8OfkoR9UoMvhzbhWnMy2XG0g6TVj4zF0IebjqFNK-/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I believe it was the brilliant John Irving who said, “You don’t initiate a story until you know how you’re going to end it. You don’t start a dinner party conversation—‘A funny thing happened on the way to LaGuardia’ –and not know what happened in LaGuardia."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-JCpo-S0a7DD_VvDgzKyyKqLCZYztJq6_7gehvAVTqLGYAfJvSU_6bav2Nj9YDJOm2AZGpwlrss4HFmGrwdoq2A0YYiXlDdanJiDDH6EG4EmuxOx6P1tVC2RSz3u4M_TeHMJ0Tbg5RBy5/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-JCpo-S0a7DD_VvDgzKyyKqLCZYztJq6_7gehvAVTqLGYAfJvSU_6bav2Nj9YDJOm2AZGpwlrss4HFmGrwdoq2A0YYiXlDdanJiDDH6EG4EmuxOx6P1tVC2RSz3u4M_TeHMJ0Tbg5RBy5/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" /></span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I used to use the “fly by the seat of my pants” approach. Sometimes it worked—just by fluke, I think. But more often than not, I would dig myself into a hole and get stuck. Now I think I tend to agree with John Irving. I try to tell myself the story. I don’t like to tell other people the story, because, maybe it’s just Irish superstition, but it feels as if it loses some of the magic for me when I talk it out with someone. I’ll write little notes to myself –when I do it that way, it’s as if the story unfolds on its own. As soon as I have a general idea of where it's going, then I start to work—and I work out technicalities and logistics along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the big, meaty question I try to remember to ask myself is, <i>What has to happen? </i>If you have an impulsive character up on a rocky ledge, or if you have a nervous, self-conscious character fumbling in a mud pit, what absolutely has to happen? I don't always know, but it's always an adventure to see where this question takes me.</span></div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-8780366408039165602015-08-02T10:36:00.002-04:002015-08-02T10:36:37.465-04:00Duct Tape, Chocolate and Walter White<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write two words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Get distracted by something shiny.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Two more words.</span></div>
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<s><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cross them out.<o:p></o:p></span></s></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write three more.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPn2edOoOxgShB4nCqO2RsCq6YleNYA7QdXk4Csc_j57mDBwI2udJ5K2uafG2hO7c_AL0DsBVNkLM4rR5UksP9NxAlityGiHdXN6ahQI6aUNHwd3Dtl9wOJFhQ8RuJicq33tzJBN_Dlyo6/s1600/duct+tape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPn2edOoOxgShB4nCqO2RsCq6YleNYA7QdXk4Csc_j57mDBwI2udJ5K2uafG2hO7c_AL0DsBVNkLM4rR5UksP9NxAlityGiHdXN6ahQI6aUNHwd3Dtl9wOJFhQ8RuJicq33tzJBN_Dlyo6/s1600/duct+tape.jpg" /></span></a><o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sneak peek out the window.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sniff the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that charcoal with a hint of cheeseburger?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Lean closer to the window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Shut the window and duct tape yourself to your chair.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Five more words.</span></div>
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<s><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Cross out three.<o:p></o:p></span></s></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Write eight more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Is that a sentence you see?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Give the sentence a friend or two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Don’t stop now.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdMPa5BV8bZdcBAcm2gguS03hUsxtT0l505sVNYAW-vUpAT62KJY195mR4Z6mx9ed6EwByNFpdVTknGRldi7XVD0iwIYVi9ncn0_Y9IU9dovIZDCLzz1iYqWYBvtPtrEprd2tE3EC63DX6/s1600/images-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdMPa5BV8bZdcBAcm2gguS03hUsxtT0l505sVNYAW-vUpAT62KJY195mR4Z6mx9ed6EwByNFpdVTknGRldi7XVD0iwIYVi9ncn0_Y9IU9dovIZDCLzz1iYqWYBvtPtrEprd2tE3EC63DX6/s1600/images-4.jpeg" /></span></a><o:p><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You have a page.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The window has darkened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The charcoal is gray.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But you’ve done the work.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1jNAjrHdTmVo1TaayGcfVrDHOauK1vWYMgTltwHwho21IGt_QiBD-xlgCvP7UD-aT1YCHGg5opiw-qbWeE37JyV5Tc8CLkMkONBuIqwo6z5u4ofGQx6fEdmy7iX46KgEp7nIY_IrBqzU/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY1jNAjrHdTmVo1TaayGcfVrDHOauK1vWYMgTltwHwho21IGt_QiBD-xlgCvP7UD-aT1YCHGg5opiw-qbWeE37JyV5Tc8CLkMkONBuIqwo6z5u4ofGQx6fEdmy7iX46KgEp7nIY_IrBqzU/s1600/images-2.jpeg" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Now celebrate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Unpeel the duct tape.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eat some </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">chocolate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">See what Walter White is up to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Sleep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wake up and repeat.</span></div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-77078455631609372015-07-23T08:20:00.002-04:002015-07-23T08:20:35.995-04:00The Painful and Embarrassing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt2a7eD1aMVuxA3AadwGOILl5RibHlk7qgsU7JK0y80K4JLcNNbBfN3Fb_lDYs8qbz3rLRE_R2TJ5_Ii9tjzavET4eLP3Qutr2ZHUvNq76DYtBNasFkExzdt6lZ6Z-O224ZUSbNv8311Jn/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt2a7eD1aMVuxA3AadwGOILl5RibHlk7qgsU7JK0y80K4JLcNNbBfN3Fb_lDYs8qbz3rLRE_R2TJ5_Ii9tjzavET4eLP3Qutr2ZHUvNq76DYtBNasFkExzdt6lZ6Z-O224ZUSbNv8311Jn/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Paula Danziger definitely had it right. She knew how to create a truth-telling world. This is the draw-you-in-immediately-make-you-laugh-sob-and-wet-your-pants-all-at-the-same-time kind of telling the truth. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Wonderful to read, but not so easy to write.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But once you actually get down to adding that emotional layer--once you are actually laughing, sobbing, and wetting your pants while you are typing, it's going to be the most satisfying kind of work you can do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My editor, Reka Simonsen, used to say to me, "Dig Deeper."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So that's my challenge for you this week. Think of things that make you cringe and write down exactly what you are feeling. Then give that feeling to one of your characters. Drum up that embarrassing moment--you know which one. Then pass it on to one of your characters. Go ahead. You got this.</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-40764361574615428652015-07-16T08:37:00.000-04:002015-07-16T08:37:01.402-04:00Is Your Character Driving the Bus?<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If you’re silent for a long time, people just arrive in
your mind.” --Alice Walker<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixygRD4jgrrjOaHf8scN8qeklEPl6GOt9IJgvWxUK4zSSoElXDtV7Bwbxj6U0QDLIIJ4DVB-3MWIvDfRuJPl4DhkwXCkZx0cVTDIyQU8lfVEUfj1IeIROb-s8H8Kwa_6GUVXlkDTSA9Yk3/s1600/images-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixygRD4jgrrjOaHf8scN8qeklEPl6GOt9IJgvWxUK4zSSoElXDtV7Bwbxj6U0QDLIIJ4DVB-3MWIvDfRuJPl4DhkwXCkZx0cVTDIyQU8lfVEUfj1IeIROb-s8H8Kwa_6GUVXlkDTSA9Yk3/s1600/images-3.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfRlW2ShHV1vSOcsh1QSp6jGVfC2KJyKb3xccrHHGa2i3oKFfoZovKQ-44DJBoP308R7dSgN1QbL6VEN8ortAsBC2hyphenhyphengEHXfOR6K4WGj5PNbHRNj5t0swiM5NJT2S3YPGMwi8ev1g5m3B/s1600/Unknown-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmfRlW2ShHV1vSOcsh1QSp6jGVfC2KJyKb3xccrHHGa2i3oKFfoZovKQ-44DJBoP308R7dSgN1QbL6VEN8ortAsBC2hyphenhyphengEHXfOR6K4WGj5PNbHRNj5t0swiM5NJT2S3YPGMwi8ev1g5m3B/s1600/Unknown-3.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">With your first few lines, you are inviting your readers into
the lives of your characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
want your readers to feel as if they’re eavesdropping and somehow getting
privileged information that no one else has.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re allowing them to sneak into the house with you --to
hide in the corner or to be a fly on the wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0auAQRSFRGGIerE9WP62XnOD6AyCsuyFKlekyqDRCBjmJsiwALg67EvrmoOmVbrC0o7bbwH_SuJueB88ZypfwEBSRrrmKLubPl2jWt7AqWxcv5I6vO5Z_FwLzRko6It7BZZ_N3j9uLb0x/s1600/images-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0auAQRSFRGGIerE9WP62XnOD6AyCsuyFKlekyqDRCBjmJsiwALg67EvrmoOmVbrC0o7bbwH_SuJueB88ZypfwEBSRrrmKLubPl2jWt7AqWxcv5I6vO5Z_FwLzRko6It7BZZ_N3j9uLb0x/s1600/images-4.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now you as the writer need to be the fly on that
wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listen to your
characters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are they saying
to each other?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they angry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afraid?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--Maybe even terrified?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, of course, ask yourself <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What are your characters worried about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has someone in the room caused those
worries?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What does your character truly care about?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has to at some point in the story
seem almost unattainable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I leave you today with a quote from Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Many people believe that stories are
told to put people to sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
tell mine to wake them up.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-76194063425396791052015-07-09T08:10:00.001-04:002015-07-09T08:12:03.560-04:00Razor Blades and Pencil Sharpeners<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Lewis Carroll once said, “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversation?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM40JUphxpYL_QZoVqj2thYB7Zw7RtIKLL3CbJY7HBNfWmHgM1U0aT9zXVPCseQR27nz4cgaqDTwlVtKLRSOqdqNHBXtju2Jc1hjioCgf-5etVGw5xmK9zCCCnVyv5LUGuuMwaTn8IhxhP/s1600/images-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM40JUphxpYL_QZoVqj2thYB7Zw7RtIKLL3CbJY7HBNfWmHgM1U0aT9zXVPCseQR27nz4cgaqDTwlVtKLRSOqdqNHBXtju2Jc1hjioCgf-5etVGw5xmK9zCCCnVyv5LUGuuMwaTn8IhxhP/s1600/images-2.jpeg" /></a><span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As middle-grade and young adult writers, we owe our readers
those pictures and conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are the toughest audience around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right around third grade, they start to form very strong
opinions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each day in my third grade class, I would get a round
of critiques, with their observations, all of their up-and-downs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would watch to see what I had on my
desk, what I’d put around the room, how I might be reacting to the fact that
Owen is taking all the razor blades out of the pencil sharpeners, and Anna has
brought her cell phone to school and is showing it off in the cubby room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Kid readers see and hear and feel everything with the sharpness that hasn't yet had the edges buffed or smoothed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So it is our job to make them see and hear and feel every
last bit of our story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to
provide the pictures and conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have to drop those kids into our book from the first page, from the
first sentence, or they are going to turn around and leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember, we’re not there to teach;
we’re there to entertain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">They need an equal amount of action, description, and
dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not one word should be
there that doesn’t drive the story forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give them something to wonder about on the first page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give them someone to worry about or
cheer for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Novelist Andre Gide said,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The poor novelist constructs his characters; he controls them and makes
them speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The true novelist
listens to them and watches them function; he eavesdrops on them even before he
knows them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjklMtx1ujpflUDApPMyeQi1T2FZ9XZs0qs4-dmli7MZAy-zRWAaCjr1vR_6uAMormbg6Url9o9gdjd25BTddJtxU36ggplFzYM8Dno22vQ9gzBoH3WtwZKyuUKUyBXIFV-HIaCguHsQQuu/s1600/Unknown-2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjklMtx1ujpflUDApPMyeQi1T2FZ9XZs0qs4-dmli7MZAy-zRWAaCjr1vR_6uAMormbg6Url9o9gdjd25BTddJtxU36ggplFzYM8Dno22vQ9gzBoH3WtwZKyuUKUyBXIFV-HIaCguHsQQuu/s1600/Unknown-2.jpeg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #220606; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: 19px;">So today, go do a little eavesdropping. Watch, listen, and wonder. Color a few pictures.</span></span></div>
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Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4408344234649007529.post-41512515393678286952015-07-02T10:14:00.003-04:002015-07-02T10:16:23.855-04:00Where in the World Are We??<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGC07guRUKKBVaNq9obO5QCkmXKq3q1KUSBtmLe3cJlTUXQa9RrXRQWmRRmJJufPbo6Xb7SOOcyHgiFUaFFX7AZoskkBf04Poz4oLGAXmpHZ9avZHvXhaNTEvAnqOi_xqVl8fg90xniTw1/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGC07guRUKKBVaNq9obO5QCkmXKq3q1KUSBtmLe3cJlTUXQa9RrXRQWmRRmJJufPbo6Xb7SOOcyHgiFUaFFX7AZoskkBf04Poz4oLGAXmpHZ9avZHvXhaNTEvAnqOi_xqVl8fg90xniTw1/s1600/Unknown-1.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have always been partial to anything that is broken-down and decrepit or unusual, because such things always spark a story for me. I can't help but imagine: Who lived there? What went on in that place over the years? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Some people feel that in order for a place in a story to feel authentic, it has to be a very familiar place -- a place the author has experienced in great detail. But I don't necessarily agree. We can add details in a such a way that it becomes real and familiar.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZ1sZC6ps5AtJl1RZcnGzO6LtzDcO6eD0u2UcZbIzo5z0bJKF5mInm1t_nSoPIiHiPKbhuwakzmEekHrRki7v9WO61XAUzWRDgHfYismAc5Y3Z-MnL4UxoKQeq5Hrpx3jpOVqCKzSf5Nu/s1600/decrepit-old-house-queens-new-york-red-bricks-graffiti-34732266.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbZ1sZC6ps5AtJl1RZcnGzO6LtzDcO6eD0u2UcZbIzo5z0bJKF5mInm1t_nSoPIiHiPKbhuwakzmEekHrRki7v9WO61XAUzWRDgHfYismAc5Y3Z-MnL4UxoKQeq5Hrpx3jpOVqCKzSf5Nu/s1600/decrepit-old-house-queens-new-york-red-bricks-graffiti-34732266.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I think that setting is very subjective. We experience setting in the same way that we experience people. We all see and notice different details around us. Think about giving someone directions, for example. Some of us will deliver what I call the MapQuest version, using strictly mileage and left and right turns, while most of my writer and illustrator friends will use color, shape, and landmarks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The details of settings add emotion to the story, because we can actually have strong emotional reactions to places, especially when we have our own history there. Certain elements may spark vivid memories, both good and not so wonderful--your childhood home, for example.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtfNEeOdsbLu9iEgMhh-Q0zqpJ0LB3GNyA45U-BQAA9emJRCBoHhp5WilJQbOYbB72MYXqxc1qVB4OLRyVeSxq4lzeKfryEWzV3LU4SyqVGX2eHxxuQUsOxwX9og_RxVM5zdJPt7bywcV9/s1600/shoppingcart.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtfNEeOdsbLu9iEgMhh-Q0zqpJ0LB3GNyA45U-BQAA9emJRCBoHhp5WilJQbOYbB72MYXqxc1qVB4OLRyVeSxq4lzeKfryEWzV3LU4SyqVGX2eHxxuQUsOxwX9og_RxVM5zdJPt7bywcV9/s320/shoppingcart.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The setting is the holder of the large details, and more importantly, the tiny, sharp details of the character's world. The writer is coloring the picture for the reader. I always hope that my reader will feel as if s/he is eavesdropping -- as if s/he is a fly on the wall of the setting. Your unique setting allows the reader to crawl into your story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My invitation to you writers out there: Notice a detail of a place as you are out driving or walking. It stands out to you in some way, but you may have no idea how or why this is. You do know that you can completely picture your character there. Write it. Do it now. See where it takes you...</span>Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11469738498361839959noreply@blogger.com0