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WFMAD Day 27 – talking heads

I still feel pretty punky, but managed to make some headway on my novel yesterday, which makes up for a lot of internal ickiness. I also started a large map of the territory of the book. There are several scenes in which I’ve written (this is the craptascular first draft, remember): "MC goes from Point A to Point B. Insert interesting details of his path." I imagine my editor and reader are going to expect me to actually make that stuff up and insert it. I’ll work on that today.

Do you have a Creature With Fangs, like mine, who has an unseemly need to be adored by millions? Enter this contest.

I have hundreds of cherry tomatoes. Anyone have a good recipe?

Ready…

Today’s advice: "Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability."

Set….

Today’s prompt: Elizabeth George (Write Away) has a wonderful technique to get rid of those pages of dialog that meander along until your reader fears she has accidentally picked up a screenplay.

George calls them THADs: Talking Head Avoidance Devices.

You are going to make up a bunch of them.

Think about your MC’s life, and where and when she has conversations. Brainstorm 50 different kinds of actions that might reasonably take place while she is talking.

Hint: setting often determines action. If you are not clear about the What The Heck Is She Doing in a scene, first insert more details of the setting. That should get you going.

Scribble….Scribble…. Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 26 – contagious and miserable

I’m struggling with both allergies and some kind of stomach bug, so don’t come too close.

I am tempted to ramble on in horrifying detail about the various sensations and infestations and colonies of bacteria all busy breeding a world under my skin, but frankly, I don’t have the energy. I’m going to post this blog and curl up with a nice tome about 18th-century surgical techniques.

Be sure to read this interview with poet/photographer/picture book wizard, Charles R. Smith Jr.

Do you have any thoughts about this map of book banning and challenges?

Ready…

Today’s advice: "Stay away from all other human beings because they will just make you sick."  Me

Today’s writing advice: "Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions." Mark Twain

(If you are in the mood for an essay, compare and contrast today’s two quotes.)

Set…

Today’s prompt: (This is a good one. Feeling like something the cat threw up inspires me.)

1. Pick a fairy tale.

2. Write your own version of it.

3. Start with "Once upon a time…" (Read the opening to my book, Prom, if you want.)

4. Write a modern and or twisted version of the story.

Extra Bonus Points: Keep it under 750 words and set it in picture book format.

Crown of Gold Award: Illustrate it, too.

Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!

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WFMAD Day 25 – and a child goes to school

On September 7, 1992, this child went to first grade.

That is the OfficeMouse.

I bring this up because today is her first day of school again, this time as an eighth grade science teacher. Congratulations Ms. Anderson!!!

The day she started school in 1992 is the day I mark as my first day of being a "real" writer. I had been a freelance journalist for a while and had been playing around with the notion of trying to write books for kids.

After I put OfficeMouse on the bus that day, I went up to my little writing nook and wrote myself a long journal entry. In it, I gave myself the goal of being published in five years.

It took me four years.

Looking back, I should have given myself ten years. That is a much more realistic time line.

Ready…

Today’s advice: "Most of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn’t spend half our time wishing." Alexander Woollcott

Set…

Today’s prompt: Write down where you want your writing life to be in 2010, in 2014, and in 2026.

Be specific and bold. What kinds of books do you want to write? When will you have them ready to submit?

Don’t worry about the things you can’t control, like editors or publishing houses or marketing plans.

You have total control over the quality of your work and the amount of time and energy you put into it. Write yourself a road map from now to 2026 defining how and what you’re going to write.

Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!

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WFMAD Day 23 – Conjugate this:

Yesterday I wrote. Today I am writing. Tomorrow I will write some more.

Color me happy.

If you really want to write, treat yourself and enjoy these 9 ideas for improving your writing productivity.

Ready…

Today’s advice: "Novelists… fashion nets to sustain and support the reader as he falls helplessly through the chaos of his own existence."  Fay Weldon

Set…

Today’s prompt: Your goal today is to move your pen across the paper or zoom your fingers on the keyboard without pausing to think.

Got that? "Don’t think. Just write." ©

Is it hard? Does your pen slow down, your mind drift off course? I have an idea that might make this easier.

Start by writing "I remember…" then follow that with a memory. If your falter, question yourself, or judge the quality of the memory, you can do one of two things:

a) Move one line down and start again "I remember…"

b) Where you get stuck, write, "or maybe not, maybe it was…" and release yourself from the confines of literal memory, allowing your imagination – anchored in something real – to take off to the stars.

Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!

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WFMAD Day 22 – Showers of Words

Here is an almost typical writing day for me. I woke up yesterday at 5am, ate breakfast, wrote my blog entry and wrote in my journal. Then I had to drive BH 40 miles into the city so he could pick up his car. When I got back to my village, I took care of a couple of errands and wrote in our new bakery for a while. (Greco’s, for all of you guys who live near me. It’s next to the Dollar Store in Mexico. A GREAT place to write.)

When the traffic outside the bakery got too heavy, I headed back home and wrote until dinnertime. How many words did I write? I have no idea. 

I was struggling and struggling with the elements of a new chapter. I knew what was going on with my character up until that chapter. I sort of knew what was going to happen after it. Chapter X, however, remained murky.

I brainstormed several courses of action my character could take. Didn’t like any of them. Checked my email. Didn’t like any of that, either. Went back to some of the primary sources that were the inspiration for this chapter. Felt like the right idea was teasing me; staying just out of my line of sight, but rushing up and poking me in the side to let me know it was there.

And I felt like an idiot for not being able to solve this knot.

I looked at the possibility that this was an unnecessary chapter. Nope. I needed it. This is a turning point chapter in which one series of events resolves and another begins. A new character was present in this chapter; he showed up two chapters earler, and I didn’t know much about him. I finally figured my character’s emotional journey in this pivotal chapter, but I was stuck on how to show how he makes that journey through action and dialog.

BH and I ate dinner. I talked to a couple of our kids and read for a couple of hours. I had planned on going back to my office to write before bed, but just couldn’t find the energy. So it was off to the shower.

My answer was in the water. This happens so frequently, I don’t know why I don’t just work in the shower ever day.

In the course of the shower, all of the answers dropped into my skull: the new character’s name, motivations and background, his connections to my Main Character, and best of all, the way this irritating chapter was supposed to unfold.

Eureka!

The interesting thing was that my new understanding of the new character requires me to go back two chapters where he is introduced and completely change his reaction to the Very Awful Bad Thing that happens back there. That’s today’s work.

Ready…

Today’s advice: "Every writer I know has trouble writing."  Joseph Heller


Set…

Today’s prompt: Part 1. Go to the Poem-A-Day archive at Poets.org.  Choose three poems at random. Print them out.

Part 2. Take a page out of your local newpaper.

Part 3. Grab your scissors and cut up the newspaper and poems into narrow slips of paper that contain no more than two lines of text. When you are done slicing and dicing, mix all the pieces of paper together.

Part 4. Close your eyes and pull out a couple or three or five slips of paper. Use the words on them to spark your writing today.

Scribble…Scribble….Scribble!