A Shameless Plug for Pinterest

I’m not much of a social media fan.

I do have an account on Facebook, but I don’t post much and I rarely read others.

Twitter and Snapchat, I just don’t get those two at all and  you can throw Instagram in that group also.

But, oh, how I love, love, love Pinterest!!

My parents loved to go to old bookstores and they would let me get  stacks and stacks of old magazines.  Once I got a huge, whole cardboard box for one dollar! When I got home  I would make these books using magazines, construction paper and glue…the old kind of glue that was really messy.  I spent hours sitting on the floor of my room, cutting out pictures and glueing them to paper while using newspaper to sop up the glue. Then I would put on one of my favorite albums, yes, those were the days of vinyl and just let the stories wash over me.

Oh, what wonderful times!

I thought the heady feelings of discovery and imagination were gone….until…..

PINTEREST!

Take the photos above….

1. A girl -love the hair and the candle!  Where is she planning on going that she has to use that taper? Hmmmmm
2. A boy– is he a hero or a villain?  My choice!
3. “Don’t go into the woods”– of course, we are going! We probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t posted the silly sign, but now it’s a given.
4. A creepy door knocker – “Hello?  Is anyone there?”  Cue creepy laughter or a shadow out of the corner of your eye.
5. A stream slowly meandering in the woods– where does it originate, where does it end?  Is it a dividing line?
6. Witch humor-I never thought of witch’s being funny, but what if they were?

Six images – boom!  Story! 

If you haven’t used this tool for your own writing or creating, whatever it may be, you should really try it out.

The best part about Pinterest is knowing how many people out there are just like me.

Bookmakers, storytellers, imaginers.

Lord, how I love the imaginers. 

Tulsa’s 1st Writing Well Creative Writing Workshop – striving to “make the impossible possible.”

Yesterday I attended the first ever Writing Well Creative Writing Workshop

Writing Well Creative Writing Workshop 2016

presented by Michele Chiappetta and Rob Harmon.

For the fullness of disclosure, Michele is a member of Purple Ink and Rob is a friend through my critique group.  That being said, I appreciate the bias you may be reading into this blog, however, I entreat you to believe me when I say we all have enough mutual respect for each other to discuss openly our opinions. 

The location of the workshop was Oxley Nature Center located in Mohawk Park. With panoramic views multicolored autumn leaves and the conference room sitting on a glistening pond, the atmosphere when arriving combined both peace and possibility.

While the attendees were small in number, Writing Well had some outstanding speakers on the guest list. Authors William Noble and Gordon Grice skyped in, while Raymond Shinault , Shasha Martin and Eilis O’Neal were able to attend in person.

The workshop was the result of Michele and Rob striving to fill a void in Tulsa.  As Michele said in her opening remarks, “A community of writers connecting with other writers did not exist in Tulsa, so I decided to change that.”  Just so you know, I’m paraphrasing- but you get the gist. 

To their credit, that sense of community was delivered and delivered brilliantly.

From the t- shirt to the lunch to the workshops to the topics, Writing Well was an professional and excellent event.  And I want more!!!

Just being around others who are interested in your craft is empowering and encouraging, but the exchange of ideas I was able to participate in went well beyond my expectations.

Engaging in a discussion with Murder of Storytellers members, Adrian Messmer and Jack Burgos, I found out they have been frustrated by the apparent lack of diverse writers in Tulsa.  To combat this void they have formed a non-profit organization which will provide encouragement and instruction to school students encouraging them to write and thereby broaden their own outlook on the world.  This is yet another outstanding example of working on positive change for Tulsa.

A friend of mine who I will call, S, attended the workshop at my encouragement.  A woman  whose project involves writing about personal experiences, she has chosen a far more challenging topic than most fledgling writers and I am happy to report she has accepted my invitation to attend an upcoming critique group!  I am so, so excited to share in her journey!

The one complaint I had with the workshop(and it is more of quibble) was having the panels on top of each other.  Choosing was difficult and while I understand this set up was due to time constraints I hope future Writing Well Workshops will go longer, allowing me to attend more and more panels. I had to miss my other Purple Ink mon ami, Donna Leahey!

During one of the discussions Rob enlightened me to the double meaning of Well in Writing Well.  Again I paraphrase, “A well is deep, so we strive to encourage you to go deep into your writing to produce the best work you can.”  As uplifted and renewed as I feel after this experience, I can assure you, I will take this to heart and give my writing the attention it deserves.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early to go to work.  Walking down the steps to the parking lot I was disappointed I did not have time to attend the keynote address by O’Neal and, also due to time constraints, had not participated in the writing exercise facilitated by Shasha Martin, both would have been wonderful.  But as I was lost in these disappointed thoughts I was startled to hear an unknown male voice telling me goodbye. A tall man wearing glasses who was also attending the workshop was coming into the center.  I am embarrassed to admit I did not read his name tag, so I am unable to identify him appropriately.  Anyway he shook my hand and said he was disappointed we had not gotten a chance to speak as he was excited to meet new writers also.  Then he said he would see me next time.

So there needs to be a next time, Rob and Michele!  

I was so impressed by the workshop and I fully expect it to grow and grow into a regular Tulsa event.

Thank you to all the wonderful writers who attended and participated.  I learned from all of you!

 

The Mystery of writing a mystery!

Truth time!  I have been in a writing funk lately and hoping you can help me out.

You see, I desperately want to become a plotter AND I have always wanted to write mysteries.

So, what’s stopping me?

My inability to plot, that’s what!  

Don’t get me wrong, I love the meandering, wandering, casual way I currently write.  My method is simple and so much fun.

1. Come up with a character I like– find some pictures on Pinterest of what that person would wear or where they would live.
2. Come up with a setting or location– read about that place, watch travel videos, etc.
3. Invent a smart villain– I’m not into random psycho’s – my villain’s have class!
4. Watch what happens in my head and write it down.

Oh, so easy!  Oh, so fun!  And this method has produced two completed huge novels and two shorter novellas and several short stories.  In short, watching the movie in my head has served me very well, but, but…..

A mystery novel doesn’t work that way.

In a mystery you need the following( note – this is my own list, compiled after years of reading every mystery I could get my hands on!) 

1. The crime and it needs to be a murder.  Let’s face it, someone has to die.  Sure you can add in other crimes like robbery or blackmail, but no one is going to rush out to buy a book about to find out who stole the jewels unless somebody gets killed in the process.
2. The detective.  Someone has to figure it out.  Years ago I watched this British detective series on PBS and every single week the mystery was solved by a confession.  The killer just gave up(I’m guessing he/she was getting frustrated by the length of time the detective was taking to figure it out) and they would suddenly yell, “Yes, it was me!  I did it!”  Then the detective would look up in shock and say, “Well, of course I knew that!  But please explain to me how you did it.”  LAME! LAME! DOUBLE LAME!  But, in a good mystery,  someone to follow the clues and keep you straight, because you have to go to the store and the doctor and clean the house, so it’s tough to keep track of all the clues.  Your detective should be interesting and smart.
3. The suspects.  My rule of thumb is give me three (3) good suspects.  And by “good”  I mean plausible.  Don’t give me a wandering psycho who is insane and if just passing through town.  NO!  They need to have a reason to kill which I believe.  Money, sex and fear are all good motivators, no matter who the suspects actually are; nuns, car salesman, soccer moms or Navy seals.
4. The clues.  Yes, give me clues!  I will devour them like candy!  There are two types of clues- a.) actual clues, which point to the killer and b.) red herrings, which are used for misdirection. Mary Roberts Rinehart wins the award for delivering the best clues ever.  She was wonderful about giving you each and every one and slipping them in the narrative so casually, you could never be sure if it was an actual clue or a red herring.
5. When the mystery is solved, it has to make sense.  I can’t tell you how many paperbacks have been returned to the bookstore(yes, I’ve done it!) because of the ending.  To be clear….the eighty-six year old woman CANNOT scale the electric fence no matter how many times we have seen her walk the mall, the kindest man in town CANNOT suddenly reveal he flew into a fit of murderous rage when we have seen him be kindly and calm for the last 200 pages and above all the murdered CANNOT say, “I’m not sure why I did it, but I just did.”  Yes, someone wrote that and I got my money back.

Hence my problem…….

To write a mystery, I need to plot and plan and be organized and clear and thoughtful.

And it’s not easy, but I’m trying!

I will keep you posted on how this process is going.  Who knows, maybe you will have a suggestion or two- or at least cheer me on.

On the case!

Meg’s Epiphany

I find myself very excited today and last night I was unable to sleep.

It seems I am excited about my writing again.  That has been a long time coming.

When I first started writing it was so intoxicating, so fantastical and mind bending.  I had a story flowing in my mind and I was able to put it down on paper!  It didn’t even take effort.  I would just hold the pen in my hand and watch the movie in my head, then when I looked down it was all in the notebook.  Magic!

But then….

Then it turned on me.  Writing became a chore, a monkey on my back.  Once I declared myself a “writer” then people began asking me what I was working on.  Too ashamed to say, “nothing,” I pounded out words I didn’t care about and reprimanded those stories to no end.

“Just go down the stupid hall!” I spat at my characters.  “It makes more sense if you do and stop whining!” After a while they didn’t fight back, they did what I told them to do, but I had broken their spirits until they were as thin as paper dolls.

Finally, I broke it off with them.  Like a messy divorce I told myself lies and made myself believe them. I couldn’t write worth a damn!  It doesn’t matter what you write, it only matters if you get published.  There is no point in writing a book if it is only going to sit in a Word doc on your computer for years. 

But then I began to wonder….why were the stories in my mind in the first place?

I don’t believe things happen in a vacuum.  So, if they were in there for some reason, what was it?  

Maybe, just maybe, they are there for me.  Is that really so hard to believe? Maybe the stories and the scenes and the characters are a gift that has been given to me.

They do fit the criteria of gifts.  They come wrapped up and half the fun in unwrapping them.  They are surprising.  They are specific to me and my likes, they contain everything I love, from creepy fog covered houses and romantic plots and my sense of humor.

I firmly believe if you are given a gift you should share it, but sharing it became part of the problem with my writing.  Now I wonder, does sharing it mean what I think it does?

Maybe sharing it doesn’t just mean the actual words, but maybe it means sharing the fun and joy which I derive from the process.

A few days ago, I picked up a pen and a spiral notebook and I watched the movie in my mind.  When I looked down, there it was on paper, scrawled in a script no one but I could ever hope to read.  It was full of spelling errors and grammar issues and there were doodles on the side of the page.

“Thank you for coming back,” I said to the story.

“Thank you for letting me,” It said back.

Book Review Wednesday !!!

I recently finished two very different, very interesting books and thought I’d share.

Kind of me, isn’t it? Well, I’m just that way sometimes….

Book #1 is Death by Tea, by Alex Erickson, and I have to admit, I loved it! I also have to admit, this book tricked me into breaking a stupid rule I have and showed me in vivid color the stupidity of a closed mind!

A little background before we begin. I love cozy mysteries and I cannot lie! And I also don’t really care about the authors. That sounds cruel, but it’s just a fact. I pick cozy mysteries up like candy bars at the check out stand because I put both candy bars and cozies on the same level.

All I want out of the transaction is to lose myself to a pleasant sensation for a few moments of time. No need to think or ponder life, just give me a little sugary distraction then off it goes into the donation pile.

That being said, I just pulled it off the shelf…“Good cover, cute idea…yes, I’ll put both the chocolate bar and the book in my purse, thank you!”

The Conundrum- Dealing with Feedback

I will admit, I had a tough time with this topic. While I am reluctant to reveal all of my faults online, I think we can all agree, I often struggle with taking feedback.

It is not something I am proud of and I am aware that I need to work on this. But to all of you out there who sit smugly back and declare, “I love feedback! Good or bad, it helps me be a better writer!”, I say, “Good for you! How do you do it?”

This is not to say I only want praise. Shallow I may be, but I’m not that stupid! Over the years I have received lots of great negative feedback from which I have changed and developed. My problem lies not in the feedback itself, but in who is giving me said feedback.

My trusted friends or writers whose work I really adore can bring it to the table. They can tear me up one side and down the other and I appreciate it. Because I know they know what they are talking about and truly want to help me improve.

But, they are not the only ones whose feedback I will snap to attention for; it’s also good to get feedback from people you don’t know who really know the genre you are trying to write. For example, the reader who has every fantasy novel you can think of on their bookshelf is going to give better feedback to my fantasy novel than my Dad who reads only non-fiction political science stuff. Why I didn’t realize this sooner, I will never know!

Now I want to talk about those people I have trouble taking feedback from and I bet you may have met a few along the way.

1) The person who spent the whole time playing on their phone during your turn at the writers group. Don’t even try to give me feedback. I saw you over there playing Candy Crush!
2) The person who starts the feedback with this sentence, “I really hate mysteries and never read them, but here is what I think…” Nope, you are tuned out also. Somehow I just don’t think you can separate your already established prejudice.
3) The person who has already tuned me out. This is the person who comes every time and whenever I read they ask, “So, is this a new story?” No! It’s the same one every week, Bozo! I have no time for you either.
4) The person who wants to change my story instead of give feedback. “How about this instead of the main character being a woman struggling with independence, you make it a man who lives in Russia and instead of her wanting the vote he could be looking for a buried pirate treasure? I think that would work better!” Kinda changes the tone of my Suffragette story, doesn’t it?
5) The person who consistently can’t find one good thing to say about anything and offers no help. Don’t lie! We all know this person. “I didn’t like the character, I found her irritating.” “Your descriptions bogged me down.” “Is there a point to this? It doesn’t seem to go anywhere.” “I can’t get past the grammar errors.” “I was confused after the first sentence.” And on and on! But if you listen or even have the gall to ask how to fix this laundry list of problems, they will shrug or hand you back your work without offering one concrete bit of feedback.

People tend to confuse criticism with feedback. They are not the same.

Feedback in a flowing thing, something in motion. A back and forth and around kind of thing.

Criticism alone is a pounding, heavy handed hammer thing.

How to make me believe in your young adult dystopia

In my quest to binge watch ALL THE SHOWS, I started watching The 100.

This is (yet another) Young Adult Dystopia (actually, the ‘topia’ part of dystopia is questionable. There’s not really a good side to be found in their world. Nonetheless…) If you’re going to write a dystopia – young adult or otherwise – you have to be prepared to answer the question of why the population tolerates the situation. And you have to make sure that the consequences of disobedience are worse than the consequences of tolerating the situation.

I tend to read Young Adult only when convinced. I read Harry Potter because my son begged me to. I read The Hunger Games because my nieces enjoyed it and I thought it would be something we could talk about. A friend recommended the werewolf trilogy that begins with Shiver because she thought I’d like it. In all those cases, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the stories and the writing.

The Hunger Games was the first of the modern YA Dystopias I read. And it was the first time I remember reading a story and thinking “Why would they tolerate that?”

For those unfamiliar (I’m sure there’s someone who just came out from under a rock to read this blog), the Hunger Games is set in a post-apocalyptic future. Humans live in a place called Panem which consists of a wealthy and privileged Capital surrounded by thirteen districts of various levels of poverty and oppression. Once a year, two children – a boy and a girl – are selected from each district and put into the Hunger Games, a fight to the death from which only one winner emerges.

Why do the people tolerate this? It seems that having your children killed annually would be a prime reason to riot and rebel. And the answer is right there – remember when I said thirteen districts? Well, District 13 is a smoking pile of rubble. They did rebel and were utterly destroyed for it. So why do the people tolerate having their children killed year after year? They’ve been conclusively shown that they’ll be destroyed if they don’t. 

OK. I can accept that.

Then I read Divergent. I did not love Divergent. One of the main reasons is that the question “Why would they tolerate this?” was never adequately answered. In Divergent, people are divided into five groups depending on their character traits, things like being selfless or brave or intellectual. Various aspects of life are controlled by each group which leads to resentment. At sixteen, a child can chose to stay with his family’s group or move to a different group. At which point, they are, for all practical purposes, dead to their family. Once again, it’s a case of families tolerating the loss of their children, though granted, not as totally as in The Hunger Games.

And “Why would they tolerate this?” Because the government says it’s better that way. It’s not an adequate explanation and it’s one of the main reasons I didn’t enjoy the book and why I didn’t bother reading the rest of the series.

Which brings me back to The 100. I’d heard lots of good reasons why I should watch this show. The women are not “strong female characters,” they are fully developed characters. The story and situation is rich and complex. The teenage characters are too busy trying to survive to get too very angsty. They actually look like they’re struggling to survive rather than that they have a hair stylist waiting for them back in their camp.

The 100 is set about a hundred years in the future. Earth was torn apart by nuclear war. The scant survivors wait out the radiation in The Ark – a space station floating above the earth. The ark is dying, so they decide to send a collection of juvenile delinquents to earth to see if it’s survivable. Not only are children being put in danger once again, but the Ark is a dangerous place. With resources so scarce, any crime is punishable by death, with apparently very little trial. You commit a crime, you’re put out an airlock – “floated.”

It seems an intolerable situation. Which brings up the “Why would they tolerate this?” At first, I was unimpressed with the answer. The leaders didn’t seem to have enough power to control the population. I kept watching mostly because I didn’t have anything else lined up I wanted to watch more. Then a few episodes in, I realized – Why would they tolerate this? The answer is, they don’t. Everyone is struggling to survive and not everyone is looking out for the greater good. Like the Hunger Games which answered the question, and unlike Divergent, which didn’t, I am continuing to enjoy The 100.

Dystopias are a great way to comment on humanity. The things a person will tolerate just to survive. The things they’ll allow someone else to suffer. How blindly they’ll follow just to maintain their own quality of life. But if you want it to be believable, you have got to answer that question: “Why would they tolerate this?”

The Query Letter – The fine art of not sounding like a jerk/idiot.

In my previous post I shared my first experience with pitching an idea to a literary agent. It seems a logical next step to discuss my ongoing battle with step 2, the query letter.

I think I just want you to share my pain.

Right after I was asked to submit some of my work with a query letter, I began to troll the Internet for examples. Like so many times before when I do this, I compare it to standing on the edge of a vast sandy beach ready to look for the one grain of sand I need. Yuck!

Yes, there are lots of examples. Yes, there is basic format. And yes, they gave instructions. But when you realize how much is riding on this one document, it’s enough to add a few more sleepless nights to my already full calendar.

Paragraph one – The Hook!
This is the lead in. The all important first sentence which should make the agent want to keep reading.
What? What kind of magic is this? I had trouble wrapping my head around this because I just kept thinking, “How many times have I bailed after the first sentence?” Never. I get emails, even a few old fashioned letters ever now and again and I don’t wad them up right after sentence one muttering, “How lame and uninteresting!”

So, I wrote a “hook” opening line and rewrote it and rewrote it, until now it sounds really lame and uninteresting to me. Perfect!

Paragraph Two- Brief overview of the story.
Brief overview of the story? Goodness! My book now seems depressingly large and complicated. I could probably act it out faster than write a brief overview. This part took forever, but I did finally succeed and wrote a one paragraph overview.(Let’s just hope they don’t count off for sentence length, because I have some highway sized sentences!)

After revising and revising, I now have two parts completed and both look really lame and uninteresting to me.

Moving on!

Paragraph Three – Tell us about yourself.
Now we have the opposite problem of trying to turn something short into something long. This section really helped my mental state…I’m kidding, you know that right?

I have not won any awards for my writing nor have I ever had a following on Facebook or Twitter. My current job has nothing to do with writing and my college degree has nothing to do with being an author. When trying to write this part the only thing I could come up with as any kind of achievement at all was my doctor told me once I healed exceptionally well after both of my C-Sections. Finding no way to weave that into anything literary, I did leave it out.

Now I have three lame and uninteresting sections. At least I am consistent!

The good news is my partners in crime, D and M, have both agreed to read my query letter and give suggestions. Maybe after a few more months of revising….

The Pitch

Last weekend I went to my very first writing conference and I had my very first experience “Pitching” my book idea.

I thought I would share.

First off, I love the word “Pitch” used in this context. I like the idea of playing catch with someone I have never met. “Now, I’m going to throw this idea at you and you try to catch it, okay?” If they dodge left, step back, cover their face or let it fall pitifully to the ground, well, you know you’re in trouble.

Apparently there are pitch guidelines. Who knew? By the time I had already pitched my idea twice I encountered a friend who told me he had read up the night before on all the do’s and don’t’s of pitching.

Huh? This goes to show you how prepared I was…I never even thought to look!

Turns out one of the biggest things not to do is start your conversation with “Hi, I’m really nervous.” Which I had consistently pointed out to each agent I pitched. Oh, well. Live and learn.

If you have never done this before let me give you a rundown of how it works, or how it worked for me, at least.

First, you sit down with someone you don’t know and really want to impress. They look at you and you begin to wonder if your deodorant is going to hold or if the mouthwash you use ever worked at all.

You introduce yourself. If you can remember your name that’s a plus, if not, hopefully you wore your name tag for reference.

You remember not to say you are really nervous.

They are still staring. You get the impression they are working really hard at not jabbing you with a pen to make you start.

Invariably, you say, “My book is about…” I took a poll and that’s were everyone stops for a minute. What is the book about? And then you realize it’s such a lame idea. I mean, really, you are going to admit you wrote that? Really? This is of course, if you can even remember what it’s about.

Somehow you manage to spit it out. There! It’s done! You threw the ball and now you watch, in slow motion, to see what they do.

I really liked it when they asked me a question or two. To me it meant not only did they listen, but they were interested enough to be curious about something.

If you are lucky the agent will pull out a card and ask you to submit some of your work.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, I did get asked to submit. And I’m really excited!

My biggest tips to share…

Every single agent I met was nice, polite and helpful. This made the whole experience much easier. The impression I got was they understood how tough it can be and want to make it easier.

Gripping the underneath of the chair helps you not fall over when you are as nervous as I was.

There’s no such thing as Writer’s Block… she said determindly.

By Donna A Leahey

I sit down to write. I go play a flash game. I sit down to write. I go fix breakfast. I sit down to write, I need more coffee. I need to check Facebook. My email just dinged. The dog wants out. Mom needs my help. And, at the end of the day, I haven’t written anything.

I’ve been struggling (yes, again) getting anything written. This is, in part, because I’ve been busy on other types of writing and with assorted life stuff.

Last night, I had a long conversation with a friend about not being able to write. I don’t believe in Writer’s Block. I think it’s just an excuse. Which is not to say that sometimes we don’t have a hard time getting stuff written. But if we allow ourselves to say we have Writer’s Block, well, then it’s not our fault. We have a condition! It has a name! We are helpless before the fact of the Writer’s Block!

I don’t believe it is a condition. Just, sometimes, the mood isn’t there and you have to go find it.

I’ve got no surefire way to beat it. That’s why I’m writing a blog post!

But here’s what I do have: Don’t stop working. Work on some character sketches. Write out a synopsis. Write something else, turn your attention to another creative endeavor. Maybe write a blog post about how Writer’s Block doesn’t exist!

Here’s what I’m going to do:

• I’m going to set timed goals – maybe 15 minutes at a time, where I’m not allowed to do anything but write. And if that means I stare blankly at the computer screen for fifteen minutes, so be it.
• I’m going to spend time working on background. Finish up some emotional synopses for my major characters. Brainstorm some timeline issues.
• Go back and revise – I have a rule that I don’t do that until the end. I prefer forward progress. But if nothing else, perhaps going back and fixing flaws in some earlier scenes will get me inspired to start moving forward again.

Anyone else have things they do to get themselves inspired to write again?

UPDATE: After I posted this, I wrote over 1000 words last night. F you, not-writers-block!