Wake Up and Be Inspired: Monday Meanderings

Photo Credit: Victoria Slotto

What a gift it is–those moments when I remember to notice life in detail. To stop and watch the diamonds scattered across the grass in early morning hours, to catch the sun, back-lighting the soft white fuzz of my dogs or breath in the scents of earth and jasmine in our garden. I wish that I could learn to be aware in each and every moment–that I could learn to silence the mindless conversations I have with myself, to let go of fears about the future or regrets about the past, to ignore gnawing worries about what others think.

An exercise I’ve used before that has been the source of a good number of poems is this: at the end of every day (or even as the day progresses) jot down some things that you notice…in detail. I like to create a list of ten. That takes a bit of concentration throughout the day. You may want to use the top of the hour as a reminder, stop what you’re doing and tune in to what’s around you. Be sure to include as many sensory details as you can.

Here’s an example:

1. In the West, large white clouds hang heavy on the mountains. Someone has painted their underbellies with a wash of Payne’s gray.
2. Sparky lies curled at my feet, head erect like a Sphinx, but his eyes are at half-mast.

Photo Credit: David Slotto

3. A hummingbird perches on the feeder outside my window. I think he’s in love with his reflection.

You get the idea…Want to share some of the things you’re experiencing today? Or another way you’ve found to heighten your powers of observation.  Add a poem or short paragraph if you wish.

A hummingbird descends,

drinks

perfumed blood and honey.

Blankets of feathers

stagger across its

silken breast.

Photo Credit: David Slotto

Write2Day–Setting and Description

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As writers of fiction and poetry, I believe part of our responsibility to readers is to allow them to travel places they have never been or to revisit places that are familiar, thus evoking memories or heightening awareness.

Long descriptive paragraphs of setting often disenchant today’s readers who are used to momentary flashes of multiple images across a screen within a few seconds (Does this relate to the high incidence of attention deficit disorder in our culture?) but the fact remains that setting and the use of sensory description enriches the reader’s experience. One way to use this technique without losing our audience is employ it as a device to break up dialogue. Here’s a very brief example from my recently-published novel, “Winter is Past”

“I wonder how Michael’s handling it. Do you think I should I call him?” Josh asked me.

“Will it help?” Based on Kathryn’s assessment, I had my doubts.

Josh shook his head and fixed his eyes on a quail eating seeds he’d planted in the flower garden. “Maybe not, but I can try; I’ll call after we eat…”

Even more valuable, in my opinion, is the writer’s ability to convey emotion through setting. Consider this brief passage from the same novel as a means of eliciting fear, sadness and powerlessness:

I trotted after Kathryn who jogged along the brick path beside our house. My eye caught sight of a tiny wren, cowering in the dense foliage of a rambling juniper shrub. Overhead, a majestic red-tailed hawk circled, squawking a message of certain doom at the tiny bird. I felt tears well up in my eyes then turned my attention back to Kathryn who now disappeared through the redwood gate.

In previous posts, I’ve described a practice I use off and on. In your writing journal, at the end of each day, describe 5-10 things you have noticed throughout the day. Return to these lists for ideas to supplement your own writing then return to a scene you have written in which you have “told” rather than “shown” an emotion. Try rewriting it using a bit of scenery or a background activity to elicit that same feeling. This is helpful to keep in mind when you are rewriting/revising your work as well.

So, for today’s prompt, write a poem or a piece of short fiction that features setting and/or description. You may want to post a bit of dialogue that you’ve broken up using the above-mentioned technique.

How to participate? Simply post your submission on your blog, then access Mr. Linky at the bottom of this page. Add your name and the direct URL of your post, and voila–you’re in. Kindly take the time to visit and comment on other participants.

I will be on the road for a couple of days, so I may not be able to visit your posts right away. Thank you for participating and have fun writing.

Poetic Plagiarism–dVerse Poets Pub

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Poetic Plagiarism

Verbal cubism:
Deconstructing reality,
Finding Picasso.

This is in response to a prompt from emmett wheatfield for dVerse Poets Pub in which he asks us to write a poem about poetry. Cubism in visual art is about deconstruction of objects into their basic shapes. As I see it, poets deconstruct the obvious, but instead of paints or collage, we use words.

Come on over to the Pub and read emmet’s article and some poems about poetry. http://dversepoets.com We’re serving up good stuff 24/7!

 

Monday Morning Writing Prompt–Writing the Mundane

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For today’s prompt I’d like to invite you to write a poem or short prose about some aspect of your everyday life: laundry, vacuuming, struggling with the photocopier at work, walking the dogs, or cooking for example. Try to make it rich in sensory detail.

This challenge invites us to awareness, an attribute that promises to enrich us as writers.

Here’s my effort–a Haiku

Washing Dishes

sun pierces window

creates rainbows in bubbles

caressing my hands

Wordsmith Wednesday–Some More Thoughts about Description

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The more I read, the more I realize the critical role of description–involving all the senses–in the telling of a story. It is through sensory input that we engage in our world. So many of us today rush through life. Always in a hurry, we don’t take the time to notice the beauty of cloud formations, the scent of honey-suckle, the colors of the sunset or the caress of a summer breeze. Sucked into the vortex of Ipods, texting–even blogs–it’s easy to succumb to the inevitability of a life lived vicariously. So, offer your reader the joys he or she may be missing. Invite them to become more aware. This goes whether you write fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction or…you name it.

Here are a few more considerations to bear in mind when writing description:

• Good description does not have to be flowery, purple prose kind of stuff. Avoid extensive use of hyperbole, adjectives, adverbs. Go for active verbs when you can.
• Description isn’t only about what you see. Train yourself to become aware of all your senses. Keep notes about your experiences in your writing journal so that you can refer to them for inspiration.
• Use description to express emotion. It’s that old “show, don’t tell” advice. Become aware of how your body responds when you’re happy, afraid–whatever. Go ahead and jot that down in your journal, too.
• Don’t be afraid to describe the ugly, the scary, the difficult, the gruesome, even. This is all part of life, isn’t it?
• Description doesn’t have to be lengthy, rambling. Tighten up your narrative, but make every word count. I’m sure that when reading you, like me, have been guilty of skimming lengthy paragraphs of description that have taken you out of the story line.
• When writing short fiction, limit description to those things that will contribute to the story line.

Suggestion: to develop your own awareness, get in the habit of journaling each day. Jot down some memories of things you’ve observed. Go beyond the visual. Cultivate awareness.

If you haven’t written anything for this weeks Monday Morning Writing Prompt, I hope you’ll join us. Maybe some of these suggestions will help you.

Reminder–I will be off-line for a few days beginning tomorrow and will do my best to catch up when I get home. With luck, I’ll be able to do my part for MMWP!

(The image is entitled The Allegory of the Five Senses.)

Monday Morning Writing Prompt–Description

Image by vintagedept via Flickr

For this morning’s writing prompt let’s work on description. Use the photo I’ve posted and write a description of what you see. You can choose to have it stand-alone or to include it as a part of a short story. Try to incorporate as many of the sense as you can, without forcing it. To help you, take a look at this article I posted in Wordsmith Wednesday last June:

https://liv2write2day.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/wordsmith-wednesday-sensory-description/

If you participate, please link your post in comments and would you consider inviting a blogging friend to join in as well? I won’t be able to comment or visit until later in the week as we will be driving back home. At that time, I will post my description as well. I hope you have fun with this one. Thanks.

Wordsmith Wednesday–Setting and Description Revisited

As a writer of fiction and poetry, I believe part of my responsibility to the reader is to allow her to travel places she has never been or to revisit places that are familiar, thus evoking memories or heightening awareness.

Long descriptive paragraphs of setting may disenchant the reader of today who’s used to momentary flashes of multiple images across a screen within a few second. (Does this relate to the high incidence of attention deficit disorder in our culture?)

Above all, setting and the use of sensory description enriches the reader’s experience. One way to use this technique is to break up dialogue. Here’s a brief example from my novel, “Winter is Past”:

“I wonder how Michael’s handling it. Do you think I should I call him?” Josh asked me.

“Will it help?” Based on Kathryn’s assessment, I had my doubts.

Josh shook his head and fixed his eyes on a quail eating seeds he’d planted in the flower garden. “Maybe not, but I can try; I’ll call after we eat. Honey, why did Kathryn ask you to take her to her appointments instead of Michael?” Josh grabbed the meat with tongs, slid it onto a plate and headed back into the house.

Even more valuable, in my opinion, is the writer’s ability to convey emotion through setting. Consider this brief passage from “Winter is Past” as a means of eliciting fear, sadness and powerlessness:

I trotted after Kathryn who jogged along the brick path beside our house. My eye caught sight of a tiny wren, cowering in the dense foliage of a rambling juniper shrub. Overhead, a majestic red-tailed hawk circled, squawking a message of certain doom at the tiny bird. I felt tears well up in my eyes then turned my attention back to Kathryn who now disappeared through the redwood gate.

In a previous post, I described a practice I use off and on. In your writing journal, at the end of each day, describe 5-10 things you have noticed throughout the day. Return to these lists for ideas to supplement your own writing then return to a scene you have written in which you have “told” rather than “shown” an emotion. Try rewriting it using a bit of scenery or a background activity to elicit that same feeling. This is helpful to keep in mind when you are rewriting/revising your work as well.

Happy writing. Enjoy the process

Monday Morning Writing Prompt–Let Your Imagination Rule!

I find that browsing other blogs sets my imagination in gear. Especially those in which the “About” page is extremely vague. My imagination loves to divine a back story based on the blogger’s post and a physical description if the avatar is something cutesy or a photo.

So for this week’s prompt, choose a blogger friend about whom you really know next to nothing and take it from there. Write a description, or a dialogue, or a short, short story about someone who arouses your curiosity. A poem could work as well. Please, DO NOT identify the other blogger.

Now, I guess I’ll browse some blogs and see where my creative muse takes me. Please leave your link or your story in the comment section. Have a good writing week.

Delete and Dump or ?–On Revising

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Today I took some time to garden, cutting back some of the plants spent by the early onset of cold weather in Reno (it was 36 at our house this morning). Grass has invaded the flower garden and only a few splashes of color remind us of the beauty that visited us during the long spring we had this year.

As I was pruning and dead-heading, my mind wandered to the manuscript inside, waiting for me to get serious about completing a third edit. A writing buddy, Pam, is the first one to have read it and she returned the manuscript with her notes a week or so ago. I’ve avoided sitting down and facing those comments. I remember the pain of cutting scenes when I was rewriting “Winter is Past.” I confess to falling in love with my words and having to abort them hurt me to the core. But they didn’t move the plot forward…or worse, they dragged the reader, kicking and screaming, out of the story.

What did I do with those short descriptions or lengthier scenes? Sadly, some of them ended up in the recycle bin or wastebasket, only to be annihilated when I cleaned computer files or emptied the trash, but after a while I got smart and made a file where I cut and pasted my discarded work. A few have woven their way into or even inspired a poem. One became the basis of a (very dark) short story. Others are on hold, waiting for me to rescue them from the limbo of sub-existence. Maybe I’ll pay them a visit and see what happens.

I have another idea brewing, though. It came to me when I was struggling with the climbing rose, trying to get her to go in the direction I wanted. Maybe we could start a little dump site for these rejected pieces of prose or poetry…a place on my blog where you can share your beloved rejects and give them another chance at life. Any thoughts on this? Please comment, if you would.

Wordsmith Wednesday–Where to Start?

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If you’re a writer, I know you’re a reader. Or you better be. Think back on a recent trip to the bookstore or library or, perhaps, your initial foray into the sample you downloaded onto your Kindle. How do you choose a novel you want to buy?

One thing I look at, of course, is the cover. The art, the design, the overall attractiveness of the book’s presentation is a temptation that draws me to pull it off the shelf. Then I read the back cover and inside flaps. If it’s an author I know and already appreciate, that may be all it takes–but more often than not I turn to the opening chapter. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what is going to draw me, as a  reader into the story.

When I think back on the (literally) hundreds of rewrites I did on “Winter is Past,” 80% of them focused on the first fifty pages. I’m not talking edits here. I’m referring to total destruction of narrative already written. I’m alluding to using those little scissors on the tool bar of my computer or wadding up pages of manuscript and slam-dunking them into the wastebasket.

If a book doesn’t tantalize me in the opening chapters, I decide it’s not worth the however many years I have left from the perspective of the 60+ spectrum of my life span.

So what are some of the things that urge me to keep on turning pages?

• I want to know who my protagonist is, what’s going on in his or her head, what kind of challenges is she going to allow me to share with her on her journey. I’m not talking about her blue eyes and blond hair. You can give me a physical description later on if you like, or you can allow me to conjure up my own image.
• I’m looking for voice. What point of view has the author espoused? Is his character gentle, abrupt, victimized, crazy? Is she going to tell me about her or drag me into her psyche? Are there other POV characters I’ll get to meet?
• Now, what about action? Are the opening pages wearisome with long paragraphs of description that don’t seem to lead me anywhere? How long do I have to wait for something to happen? Where’s the conflict? Even in character-driven novels, the conflict better come on pretty quickly or I’ll close the book, fall asleep and leave it unread.
• And is the author going to just tell me what’s going on or is he going to allow me to immerse myself in the narrative by evoking my senses–smell, taste, touch, vision and hearing? Will I be able to suspend disbelief and identify with the protagonist? Please, please let me be a part of the story.

What other characteristics can you share that compel you to read on, to allow an author’s written word to become a part of your experience? What values do you expect to reap when you assent to spending your precious time with a book?