Writing
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Excavation
I just finished reading The Help, by Kathryn Stockett—and it occurred to me that part of why I’ve been stuck on my story is that I haven’t gone inside myself and excavated. I have been writing a story I don’t passionately care about. I love my characters, I just don’t care about what they’re doing in their lives. I’d bored myself.
So I noodled, and I remembered a romance I read many years ago which had a [briefly] homeless woman as its heroine, and I remembered that that story had a huge impact on my life because it gave ‘homeless’ a face.
I’ve been playing with that, and now my heroine is a book-loving woman whose grief over the suicide of her son and the bankrupting medical bills, and is living on the streets and making money as a street artist (and avoiding the cops because she’s become a prolific graffiti artist, as well.) She’s maintained her anonymity so far, but that’s about to change….
I care about what this woman is doing, and I can’t wait to see how she finds her way out of the dark.
Hero material
If you need inspiration for your hero, take a look at this guy: when everyone else was mocking Charlie Sheen, he took a stand. Add to that that he’s down-to-earth, he thinks strong women are sexy, he looks past physical beauty to the person within, and he’s freaking hilarious–oh, yeah, baby. My hero’s got a bit o’ Craig in him, all right.
Back in the saddle: Memoir Revision
It’s been about eight months since I finished the first draft of my memoir. I’ve finally mustered the nerve to work on it–for a while I was afraid I’d give myself another stroke, and I already had enough on my plate, anyway, with my new jobs. Now that the semester’s winding down (two more weeks!) I’ll have time and brain space to rewrite it.
The first time through, all I could manage was to write the memories–I couldn’t find the oomph to incorporate who I am now into the text, which made for a very dark book. I mention this in case a reader out there is also writing his/her memoir and perhaps thinks there is only one way to write a memoir. Not so. The process for my first draft was disjointed — I wrote memories out of order. For a while I’d write about something that happened when I was 5, then I’d switch to something more recent because writing the first memory triggered it.
Take your time while you write, and be patient with yourself. Your first draft won’t be perfect–there’ll be things you forgot to include, or maybe later you’ll realize the house wasn’t yellow, it was white, or you won’t be able to remember the name of the kid next door. Just keep writing, knowing that you can always come back and fix things.
Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest (open Feb 1st-28th)
FROM THE KENYON REVIEW website:
Submit Your Entry Now
General Guidelines
Submissions must be 1200 words or less. There is no entry fee. Ron Carlson, celebrated author of four novels and five short story collections, will be the final judge. The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story in the Winter 2012 issue, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2011 Writers Workshop, June 18th-25th, in Gambier, Ohio.
Submission Guidelines
- Writers must be 30 years of age or younger at the time of submission.
- Stories must be no more than 1200 words in length.
- One submission per entrant.
- Please do not simultaneously submit your contest entry to another magazine or contest.
- The submissions link will be active February 1st to February 28th. All work must be submitted through our electronic system. We cannot accept paper submissions.
- Winners will be announced in the late spring. You will receive an e-mail notifying you of any decisions regarding your work.
- For submissions, we accept the following file formats only:
- .PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
- .DOC (Microsoft Word)
- .RTF (Rich Text Format)
- .TXT (Microsoft Wordpad and Notepad, Apple TextEdit .
A Day in the Life of a Writer: Research
My heroine, Diana, is a painter. She got in trouble as a teen for painting on abandoned buildings (and once she did a county building in protest against them closing the county library)–and that is the extent of my knowledge of graffiti. I know that it’s usually illegal, that there are fines and or jail time, and I know they use spray paint. So I’ve been doing some research, and I’m posting it here for several reasons:
- others may be doing research along the same lines
- the information is interesting
- perhaps this will spark someone else’s muse
- maybe someone in the know will share his/her knowledge
How to Choose Spray Paint Tips for Graffiti
How to Write Graffiti-Art Basics with artist Leon Rainbow
An article about a graffiti artist who recently died when running from the police
Street Art–Dalston Bus Depot 2005
Using GMC: Diana
Here’s what happened when I released my stubborn hold on who I thought my characters were.
I asked my heroine why she didn’t want to run the family gun shop. (Yes, I talked to her. I was a little cautious about it because the notion’s kinda kooky, and I really didn’t want my kids to hear me talking to myself, so I whispered. LOL )
It works!
I asked, and she told me, “Look. I’m spending every day with my mom and she’s driving me nuts. I have to find the missing paperwork pronto or the ATF’s gonna shut her down and guess where she’ll be living? No way, sister. I love my mom, but I need my privacy.”
So, in the interest of showing you how I used Debra Dixon’s book, I’ll share Diana’s character info. It still needs work, but wow! After doing her GMC chart and those of three other characters, not only was I able to write my first chapter, I knew where I was going!
NAME : Diana (gun shop co-owner/teacher) Paints every spare minute she has. Mockingbird is totem
WHO SHE IS: a self-deluding paper tiger (tough on the outside, scared within)
WHAT SHE WANTS: Starter goal: has to find missing logbook. Get thru ATF audit. Bigger: Own her own art studio. Express herself via painting. Keep shop from being closed.
BECAUSE: 1. Logbook has info for ATF search phone call. 2. ATF doing audit. 3. She doesn’t want her mother living with her. 4. she wants to get back to her private life
BUT: Can’t find logbook. Her mother lost additional ppw. Her mother needs her in the gun shop. (obviously!)
INTERNAL WANTS: needs to please. Then : to know herself; to be regarded as ‘real’ artist; autonomy
BECAUSE: It’ll make her feel important; like she’s contributing something to the world; she’ll be expressing herself
BUT: She’s afraid: of failure, of creating garbage, of the unknown. She doesn’t believe she has the talent; won’t put her art on display. And she’s worried her mother won’t be able to run the shop effectively by herself.
My hero’s character info is still missing the internal want/need, but I was still able to write the first chapter because I had his external want pretty clear in my head. I’ll be tweaking both as I go.
You see how nowhere in Diana’s goals is there a wish to fall in love? Falling in love is what happens as she’s pursuing her goals. If falling in love were her goal, I think she’d be a weak and boring character. I want her to have an interesting life that she ultimately invites the hero –and the reader–into.
Same goes for the hero, Mark. His immediate desire is to plop down in his easy chair and read a book he’s been itching to read for several days but hasn’t had time for. Problem is, his 5-year-old nephew is having trouble getting to sleep because his mother’s recently been killed in an accident. It’s a simple conflict, and it will grow into something bigger as the story progresses.
inspiration for creating a hero
This first one is probably odd, so I’ll explain.
There’s something endearing about a guy who 1) likes cats and 2) who writes a song about his cat. This guy’s no frump, either. lol
{thanks to The Struggling Writer for this idea}
{I prefer the Simple Minds version, but couldn’t find a clip I liked}
on plotting
I have three characters clamoring to get onto the page, and I don’t care how many people say “writer, you are God,” these characters are not behaving, and they aren’t happy that I’m struggling with the plot. I know, why not just let them get onto the page and let them tell their stories?
Well, I tried that, and it was like herding cats. I have to have a plot. Part of my problem is perfectionism. I don’t want to write anything crappy. But Chris Baty, author of No Plot, No Problem, writes, “The quickest, easiest way to produce something beautiful and lasting is to risk making something horribly crappy” (32). He adds, “…you should lower the bar from “best-seller” to “would not make someone vomit” (33). LOL
An exercise Baty recommends is to answer this question: What, to you, makes a good novel?
Hmm.
- An anti-hero. Like Vachss’ Burke.
- sexual tension
- a mystery
- well-researched–nothing makes me throw a book like the hero flipping the safety off a Glock.
- snappy dialogue
- cranky people
- heroine with a passion for a particular thing; don’t care what it is.
- people who awaken from ‘deadness’
- funny situations
- thought-provoking. (like Einstein’s Dreams, for example)
- people who overcome adversity
- foreshadowing
- symbolism and metaphors
And another exercise–what bores you in a novel?
- dialogue that goes nowhere
- too much narrative (although I really liked Portrait of a Lady, and I love Herman Melville. Go figure.)
- flat characters (bad guy has to have at least one redeeming characteristic)
- improbable action
- characters who don’t reap what they sow, good or bad. Bad enough to see that in real life. *The Lovely Bones hit these two no-nos for me: when the girl possesses Ruth’s body and the boy knew who she was? Please. And the mother abandoned the kids and slipped seamlessly back into their lives. Double please.
So where do I go from here? Back to GMC, I think. I’m also finding this site on plotting helpful:
Beginning:
- start with the status quo
- and then something happens
- the character commits to their goal
Go to the site to see the pages on middles and endings. Great info.
here’s what I’m working on:
Hero’s brother & wife have been murdered over a very rare gun. Hero is on the hunt for the murderer. Wants revenge.
Heroine runs a gun shop that her father willed to her and her mother.
Mother is still grieving husband’s death (it’s been a year+) and is no help to heroine; she’s also a bit like Grandma Mazur.
Well, it’s a start.
Offshore Milk
thanks to Nathan Bransford for this link.
Check out the price—then scroll down to the reviews section. Hilarious.
D5 Creation