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WFMAD Day 10 – Reaching for New

I am reading The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich (which I recommend highly, btw!) and am struck by the layers and layers of storytelling that Louise presents to the reader and the number of narrators of these layered stories.

Louise nests these stories one inside the other with incredible skill. (I have no idea exactly how she does it, so don’t be waiting for a blog post about it) One of the many things I like about her style is her use of narrators from different time periods, narrators who are usually related to each other.

And then I realized that this was the foundation for a great WFMAD prompt!

Ready… Dig out a family album and locate a photo of someone from an earlier generation. It’s best if you don’t know too much about this person. OR Use this Google image search to find a photo that touches a nerve with you, for whatever reason. You’ll keep this photo in front of you as you write.

Set… “Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” Stephen King

Today’s prompt: Launch from that photo and write for fifteen minutes. Start with a family story, if you want, but do NOT tell the official version of the story. Make up the unofficial version, the one that your character in the photo knows. Let the voice of someone you know, but you don’t know, carry away your imagination. Bonus points – find a way to weave this person and his story into your Work In Progress!

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 9 – Movement

If you are writing a plot-driven book, one in which the main character’s journey is largely a response to exterior forces (Harry Potter, Hunger Games) then you will rarely be at a loss to decide what kind of action a scene can contain.

(CAVEAT – except for when you hit those “quiet” scenes that pacing requires every once in a while. At that point, you’ll want to pay attention to the rest of this post.)

Character-driven novels (Speak, Wintergirls) have fewer Big Dramatic Externally-Driven Turns of Plot. And more scenes in which the characters move the story forward by dialog. However, page after page of dialog with little action sends a lot of readers to sleep. (Barry Lyga and I have an ongoing disagreement about this, btw. Ask him about it the next time you see him.)

image copyright Anita Kunz
image copyright Anita Kunz

My argument is that talking heads on the page are just as boring as talking heads on Sunday morning talk shows. More importantly, they are a missed opportunity. With a just a few lines of action, you can add layers of depth to a scene. Likewise the strategic insertion of a character’s thoughts, or timely setting or sensory details. Why would you chose to portray a scene like this in one color when you have the entire palette at your fingertips?

Ready… This is Week 2. Before you start writing, give a gentle reminder to anyone who might interrupt you that all you are asking for is fifteen minutes of peace and quiet. And that you deserve it.

Set… “Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.” Saul Alinsky

Today’s prompt: Write down five scenes in which your character will engage another with a great deal of dialog. Quickly jot down what the purpose of the dialog is, and how it will move the story forward. (This should only take a line or two.)

Then for each scene, try to come up with an action that the characters can engage in while talking to each other. For example: grocery shopping, trying on pants at the mall, looking for lost homework in an overstuffed locker. Extra bonus points if you can come up with an idea for the action that will give the reader further insight into the personalities or lives of one or more of the characters.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble

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WFMAD DAY 8 – Exhaustimacated

I am beat. Whooped. Drained of all energy and intelligence. But it was SO worth it!

Yesterday I gave the closing keynote speech to 1300 people at the 40th SCBWI National Conference. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. Some of the best and brightest writers in our field had spoken over the previous three days, including Richard Peck, who somehow managed to surpass his usual eloquence and give hands-down the best speech I have ever heard him deliver.

(Lisa Yee’s blog has loads of pics of all the speakers at the conference.)

The speech went well, I think. After it I signed books for an hour or so with a bunch of other authors and illustrators. Then there was a party and a late dinner and you know what?

I have all the energy of a worm that’s been baking on a Dallas sidewalk for a week or so.

How can you find the focus or energy to write when you feel this exhaustimacated? (That word, btw, was made up by my husband.)

It’s hard, no question about it. And it creates a potentially negative situation, if you say things to yourself like, “I’m going to muscle through this and meet my writing goal for the day. Fatigue is not an option. I will not get out of this chair until I’ve written five pages, dammit….”

And then, after a couple hours or minutes of staring blankly at the screen whilst your Muse huddles in the corner and whimpers, you start yelling at yourself using really mean names and harsh words, and there is a very good chance you will eat a gallon of Rocky Road ice cream and wake up in seven hours from a sugar coma and feel even worse, if that’s possible, than when you started.

But it’s August. And you promised yourself you would write fifteen minutes every day. And like I said in my speech yesterday, “Discipline provides the canvas, inspiration supplies the paint. You create the art.” So what to do when you are this tired?

Ready… Set a timer for fifteen minutes. When the alarm goes off, if you are not feeling more energized and focused than when you started, stop writing immediately – even if you are in the middle of a word. Pat yourself on the back and take a well-deserved nap.

Set…“Your Muse is you, the very best creative, innocent, eager–to-grow part of you…You need to treat your Muse gently. Surround yourself with the kinds of things that engage your playful, creative side…Hold on to the magic and remember to have fun.” Laurie Halse Anderson (from my speech yesterday)

Today’s prompt: What smell reminds you of your favorite holiday? Start with the smell and move from that to the source of the smell and the room that you find it in. Write about the visual details and the room, then describe the people of the room; what they’re doing there, how you feel about them, what it will feel like when this moment ends.

OR
Respond to the prompt above from the perspective of your character.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

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WFMAD Day 7 – Adjust your rearview mirror

DAY 7!!!!

How are you doing on your attempts to write at least fifteen minutes every day? What is hard? What is harder? Did you have any unexpected resistance, either inside yourself or from the Universe at large?

image copyright 2007 Bill Frymire

I am a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. I know that when I write things down, it helps to focus my attention toward the goals I am trying to achieve. What most people forget to do, though, is to add a degree of accountability to the process. They are so busy moving forward, accelerator smashed down as far as it will go, that they forget to look behind them and take stock of where they’ve been. And they wonder why they don’t learn anything!

Ready… Think about the reward that you deserve for writing this week. Then make plans to actually give yourself that reward in the next 24 hours. Do not punish yourself for the missed days. Reward yourself for the days when you made the time and took the plunge into writing.

Set… “A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.” Roald Dahl

Today’s prompt: Pretend it is fifteen minutes to midnight on December 31, 2010. (Pour champagne if it will help evoke the proper atmosphere. Just don’t drive anywhere!) You have fifteen minutes to write out your writing intentions for 2011. Don’t worry about the first half of the year; it will probably go by in a blur anyway. Start your writing intentions on a random date…. say, August 8th! Write your Big Picture goals for the end of 2011, and smaller goals that you think you can accomplish within each month. Be sure to mark on your calender Check-In Days at the end of each month where you can look back at what you did and did not accomplish. You’ll also adjust your goals accordingly on the Check-In Days.

OR

Set a scene with your main character on New Year’s Eve three years AFTER the time period in which you set his story. What in the scene will trigger his memories of that time period? How will the events of the story look different to him after three years? How do you imagine he might grow in that time span?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble

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WFMAD Day 6 – Self-sabotage

I’m in Los Angeles this weekend at the 40th annual SCBWI National Conference and having a blast. Yesterday I gave an hour-long workshop on the nuts and bolts of crafting a creative life. The official SCBWI blog covered a couple of the high points. (Be sure to read the rest of the coverage of the conference events in the blog; it’s almost as good as being here.)

One of the things that came up towards the end of my presentation was the notion of self-sabotage. When the question was asked, many, many heads nodded. It seems that a lot of us are suffering from self-inflicted wounds to our work and our creative life.

Do you? Do you find yourself pulling yourself back from the brink of success over and over? Is it easier to stay mired in the familiar world of “trying to write” than to take some overdue steps that you know would bring you closer to achieving your dream? Shot yourself in the foot recently?

Yeah. Me, too.

Some experts believe that we self-sabotage when we are actually afraid we might succeed. They suspect that the attention and stimulation that comes with success is somehow linked in the subconscious of vulnerable people with events in their past that were traumatic. Others say it is rooted in our own feelings of worthlessness. If you’ve been emotionally abused, it can be hard to break free of those scars and believe that you actually deserve the life you dream of.

I know a lot of writers who prefer the comfort of the known over the discomfort of the unknown; even when the known circumstances are the state of remaining unpublished, and the unknown is what would happen if they were published and they were able to fulfill their creative dreams.

I think that a lot of writerly procrastination is actually self-sabotage. If you don’t finish your manuscript, or if there are a hundred “good” reasons why it’s not as well-written as you wanted it to be, then you will never have to confront the real pain of rejection, because you’ve already pulled the trigger on a defense mechanism that you hope will protect you.

This makes perfect sense. It also makes me want to bake you brownies and tuck a comfy blanket around you, because that is a painful amount of fear to be carrying. I suspect some writers of books for kids or teens have a further complicating worry; to write the story that is in their heart, they must confront some of the demons of their own youth. Those people deserve an old friendly dog to snuggle with, in addition to the brownies and blanket.

There is a way to write past these fears.

Ready… Put on the most comfortable clothes you own, and prepare the comfort food that soothes all your hurt feelings. Keep it close by while you’re writing. Kleenex might be a good idea, too.

Set… “The demons are innumerable, arrive at the most inappropriate times, and create panic and terror… but I have learned that if I can master the negative forces and harness them to my chariot, then they can work to my advantage…. Lilies often grow out of carcasses’ arseholes.” Ingmar Bergman

Today’s prompt: Write about the absolute worst things that would happen to you if your writing life became wildly successful. What are the best things that would happen? Who benefits if you stay creatively stuck where you are? Why?

OR

Write a scene in which your character says she has a goal, but then she unwittingly makes sure she cannot accomplish it. Be sure she is armed with plenty of rationalizations that “prove” she’s not getting in her way.