Friday's Odds and Ends

Another week has whizzed by. I was busy all week preparing for the big garage sale at the Winnsboro Center For the Arts, which didn't leave much time for writing, but I did get a few thousand words done on my current work in progress. How was your week? I hope it was productive and, most of all, fun.
 

This is Sammy. He likes to take over my office chair.

 I was dismayed to read about a bridal shop in Akron Ohio that closed because of the fear of Ebola. Apparently, Amber Benson, the Dallas nurse who had Ebola, had been a customer at that store and when news of that was revealed, customer stopped going to the store. The owner, Anna Younker, was quoted as saying, "It's like our store had cooties."

How sad.

The attack on the newspaper in Paris, Charlie Hebdo, was still big news for another week, raising a continuous flurry of news reports and commentary on the Muslim religion and its penchant for violence. Too often the reporting insinuated that all Muslims are terrorists, and it is only the Islam religion that promotes violence. That is simply not true. Throughout history other religions including Christianity have been twisted to support the right to kill in the name of that religion. Just think about the Holocaust. Just think about the battles between Protestants and Catholics that went on for so many years in Ireland. The truth is that none of these religions promote violence. They all teach about love and peace and tolerance. It is people who take those religious beliefs and tenets and twist them to serve their own purposes.

Friday's Funnies starts with this from Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis. In the first panel Goat is talking on cell phone and says, "Hey dad, did you get the Ken Burns Civil War D.V.D. I sent you for your birthday?"

"Yeah what do I do with it?"

"You put it in the D.V.D. player I got you."

"Where?"

"In the little tray."

"What tray?"

"The little tray in the D.V.D. player."

"Which one is the D.V.D. player?"

"On top of the TV set."

Dad says, "Okay okay gimme a minute will ya.....? There okay I got it in and now I'm watching an explosion."

"Good. You're watching the Civil War?"

"No. No. The TV exploded."

Goat walks over to Pig and says, "Never by your parents anything invented in the last 30 years."

(I think my kids say that about me, too.)

This one is from Dustin by Steve Kelly and Jeff Parker. Dustin and his friend, Fitch, are in a convenience store. Fitch is holding a lottery ticket and says, "This is it Dustin. This is the one."

Dustin says, "Seriously Fitch? A lottery ticket?"

"Absolutely, Dude. I've got a feeling about this one."

"Fitch, why do you keep throwing away money on those things?"

"You can't win if you don't play, man."  Then Fitch scratches off the ticket, looks up and says, "Lost again. Man, I wish I had a dollar for every time that happened."
  
Today's Writing Wisdom comes from Xander Bennet from his blog post, How Not to Write a Screenplay that was first posted last spring. Xander is a a screenwriter and author and his blog is all about writing and film. In this post he has an extensive list of things not to do, and amidst the humor are some points we all could take to heart as we write, no matter what form our writing takes. Here are just a few of the things we should not do:

Agonize over your script’s title.
Start a pointless argument on Twitter.
Decide you need to do more research. Fall down a Wikipedia hole and forget what you were doing.
Change your screenwriting software.
Wait for your manager/agent/friend/reader to email you back.
Make more coffee; you need it.
Eat more snacks; you earned them.

Saturday Surprise

I just received the following announcement from my friend, Slim Randles, and just had to share it. Since we have all enjoyed his humor and his wisdom, I thought we could raise a glass in salute.

"Home Country" columnist Slim Randles won three regional book awards for the two books he wrote in 2014. "Max Evans and a Few Friends, the 90th Birthday Book" took honors for best non-fiction book, and "Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing" won for best how-to book and best cover design at the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards in Albuquerque.

Randles lives in Albuquerque and has a dozen books currently in print.

Knowing Slim, he might prefer a different drink to salute.

 Regardless of the drink of choice, let's help Slim celebrate. Hint, hint! Books make terrific gifts and he has many to choose from. Visit his Amazon Author Page. Wouldn't buying one of his books be a wonderful way to thank him for sharing his columns with us?

Say "no" to the TransCanada XL Pipeline

Those of you who have been following my blog for some time know that I am against the TransCanada XL Pipeline that is scheduled to open soon. Many of us in Texas fought to keep the pipeline from coming through, but alas, the pipes are already in, just waiting for the green light from Washington to open them up. A decision on the rest of the pipeline is expected soon, and I don't know if it is too late to stop it - just like it was too late to stop the pipe being laid here - but I hate the fact that Big Oil has the power to make this happen and is so indifferent to the danger the pipeline poses.

In Texas, where the pipeline would end, toxic pollution in the air and water is already dangerous. But introducing tar sands oil to an area already saturated with oil refineries and chemical plants would make a bad situation much, much worse.

Tar sands oil and Keystone XL would increase emissions of benzene, heavy metals, and other carcinogens into the air that residents near the pipeline breathe every day. Not to mention what will happen to the groundwater when there is a leak and all those toxins are released.


Something else I did not know is that the tar-sands mining in Canada also threatens habitats for wildlife, especially wolves in the Boreal Forest. In some areas where mining is already happening, wolves are being killed by people riding in helicopters and hunting the wolves down.


In my heart of hearts, I think President Obama doesn't want to approve the last leg of the pipeline that is supposed to go through the heartland of the U.S., but he is pressured by the power that Big Oil has in Washington. I pray that Obama can do the right thing.

I have also been a long-time fan of Kristen Lamb, a writer who lives in the Dallas area who shares advice and tips and inspiration for writers on Kristen Lamb's Blog. Here is just a bit from her latest offering about the rise and fall of social media and the influence of coffee. One of the things I like most about her blog posts is that they are written with a fine edge of humor, and I have such a good time reading them. Here is just a sampling from her latest offering:

Many of you are old enough to remember the dot.com boom (then bust) of the 1990s. The Internet was growing in popularity. More people were owning PCs and commerce was shifting on-line. The Old Guard yelled “WITCHCRAFT!”, threw holy water and shorted out their keyboards. The New Guard dived in with the enthusiasm of a kid at Chuck E. Cheese hopped up on sugar.

Creativity abounded. What products or services could be offered on-line? How could we improve the on-line experience? How could we make purchasing faster, safer, more appealing?

Early Adopters jumped all over this because that’s what Early Adopters do. Hey, someone had to be the first to eat an oyster, right?

How Coffee Transformed the Publishing Paradigm

Coffee not only fueled the Industrial Revolution, but apparently staying up all night unable to sleep led to the invention of the “computer,” “the Internet,” and later “iTunes.” The shift from “going to a physical store” commerce to more “e-commerce” set the stage for a number of unanticipated revolutions in the arts. If we think about it, when did the mega-bookstore enjoy its Golden Years?

Hint: Right about the time of the movie You’ve Got Mail, clearly marking the brief historical epoch when we actually enjoyed getting e-mails.

I think I'll grab a cup of coffee and go check my mail. Don't forget to grab a copy of Doubletake while it is still free. I am so thrilled that one reader has already taken the time to do a short review. She called the story "Spellbinding." This is the last day for the free offering to celebrate the book's release, so take advantage while you can.

Blogger Book Fair - Two for the Price of One

This is the third day of the Blogger Book Fair, and I hope you have enjoyed meeting some new authors as they shared bits and pieces of their books. The Reader's Choice contest is still open, and my short story collection, The Wisdom of Ages,  is in the Anthology Category. My mysteries, Open Season and One Small Victory are in the Mystery Category and my romance, Play It Again, Sam, is in the Romance Category. (Votes are certainly welcome. [Smile])

  At the end of the week, I will give away advance copies of my mystery, Stalking Season to three lucky winners, or an e-book of your choice. All you have to do to win is comment on the blog this week and I will draw names on Friday. Please leave a contact e-mail.
Today, because it is mid-week and I am a bit stressed, I thought we would have chocolate as our treat. Help yourself.

Before I signed up for the Blogger Book Fair, I scheduled Jarod Kintz to be my usual Wednesday's Guest, we will have a visit from two authors today. First up is my Blogger Book Fair guest Jerry Hatchett with an excerpt from his thriller, Pawnbroker.  Jerry grew up in the creatively fertile Mississippi Delta. Now a transplanted Texan, he writes from the Houston area. He's a lifelong geek, an expert in digital forensics, and is crazy about storytelling in all its forms. He also cooks the best ribeyes on the planet and is an avid fan of Ole Miss football in particular and SEC football in general.

A rusty chain hung across the spot where the abandoned road entered the woods. A stencil-painted tin sign, drooping from the chain on baling wire, issued a Day-Glo warning to the curious: PRIVATE LAND. TRESPASSERS PROSECUTED. RICHARD BALLARD, SHERIFF, PONTOCOLA COUNTY. Three miles into the woods, atop a shallow ridge, an old building still stood. Once fresh and gleaming, its weathered shell had long ago turned the lifeless gray of decaying lumber. Such was its condition when Ray Earl Higgins and Rocky Shackleford first beheld it in the beam of an Eveready flashlight on a hot August night, thirty minutes shy of midnight.

Rocky and Ray Earl had killed more deer over the past twenty years than anybody in Pontocola County, maybe even the whole state. (It helped that they weren’t hindered by things like seasons, rules, or limits.) Rocky knew they were on posted land, but if they got caught hunting deer three months before season opens, at night, a trespassing charge would be the least of their worries. Besides, the deeper they went, the less likely they’d meet up with a game warden. Or some candy-ass animal rights freak who might run whining and blabbing. Finally, all those fine considerations aside, Rocky just didn’t give a happy damn. He’d go where the hell he pleased.

As for Ray Earl, well, he went where Rocky went. That’s the way it was in the second grade, and that’s the way it was on this fine evening. If Ray Earl were diagnosed by modern standards, he would probably have been deemed autistic, with a savant-like ability to mentally record and catalog detail. Instead, at age four he was diagnosed by Dr. Hurston Westerfield—a portly gentleman who hung his shingle just after World War II—after much careful evaluation, as “a V-8 hitting on four cylinders, maybe five on a good day.” Ray Earl was well liked in town, or at least well tolerated.

They had never hunted these woods, and to be accurate, the quest for venison was not what drew them in tonight. It was the stench. It rode in on a hot southern breeze, a reek so strong it made Rocky gag. Rocky, who had disemboweled countless deer as he dressed them out. Rocky, the A-shift foreman at Montello’s open-surface sewage treatment plant. He had to find the source of such an impossible stink.

Great teaser for the book. I am adding this one to my wish list.

Next up is Jarod with some tips for writers. Last Sunday I reviewed his book, The Mandrake Hotel and Resort  and here is his guest post.

How do I become be a better writer? That is the question every aspiring author asks themselves. 

Writing is inventing, and in a sense an author plays God, because as God created the heavens and the earth, the author creates worlds that exist in books.

So to be a better writer, you must be a better creator—you must be more creative than both the old you, and your past, present, and future competition, which thanks to the open availability of self-publishing, is pretty much everyone in the world.

Writing isn’t about IQ, which is rigid and convergent. Writing is about divergence, and as Malcolm Outliers, a great little test to measure your creative intelligence is called the Brick and Blanket Test.

Gladwell talked about in his book

It’s as simple to understand as it is hard to execute. Quickly put, you must come up with as many uses as you can for two common items: a brick and a blanket. What does this have to do with writing? Well, the more creative you are, the better your writing will be. You must be intellectually flexible, like a cerebral gymnast, not rigid and brittle like glass.

How creative are you? Why don’t you find out by seeing how many different uses you can come up with for a brick and a blanket. 

After you are done playing, honestly assess yourself. If your answers were stodgy and stiff, maybe you need to open yourself up a bit and let loose.

In closing, Jarod says, “My story is just beginning. I plan on failing my way to success. I have been rejected by literary agents, publishers, MFA programs, and all sorts of women. But still I keep writing. Share yourself with the world. If there is one thing I like to impress upon people, it’s that you can do it, even if you can’t. Just keep can’ting until eventually you can. And you can quote me on that.”

Drama means conflict

 If you have not been a follower of Kristen Lamb's Blog, I highly suggest you check it out when you get a chance. She recently did a couple of posts dealing with conflict, and the one that really resonated with me was "Little Darlings and why they Must Die"  In that post she makes the point that complications do not equal conflict. She wrote:

The problem is, complexity is not conflict. We can create an interstellar conspiracy, birth an entirely new underground spy network, resurrect a dead sibling who in reality was sold off at birth, or even start the Second Civil War to cover up the space alien invasion…but it ain’t conflict. Interstellar war, guerilla attacks, or evil twins coming back to life can be the BACKDROP for conflict, but alone are not conflict.

 Before I read Kristen's post, I had just finished reading a book that had been sent to me for possible review. While the writing in the book was engaging in parts and the central character was interesting, I was lost in layers of complications and kept sensing that something was missing. That something was real conflict.

Then I thought about the trouble I had in finishing Stalking Season, the second book in my mystery series, and realized that I had been struggling with this issue of conflict vs. complications. With a mystery, we want lots of suspects and false trails, but I know I have to be careful that I don't focus too much on that and forget about the basics of conflict:

                                       Character > goal > impediments

Another way to look at this is to think of drama as action and reaction. A character sets out to accomplish a goal, other characters or circumstances keep him from the goal, and he reacts. Keep in mind that reaction is emotional as well as physical. For example  in a romance the couple might have a fight and one of them storms out. That is the physical reaction. The emotional is what the character feels and thinks about the fight and what it means to the relationship.

In my case, I had been concentrating on the procdural side of the detectives finding the killer, I had missed some opportunities for real conflict. I knew something was missing, just like I knew something was missing in the book I read for review, but I  couldn't define the missing part until that aha moment when I read Kristen's blog.

Writers, how do you handle conflict in your stories?

Welcome Peg Herring

Thanks to Maryann for hosting today’s stop on Peg’s Blog Crawl. Yesterday’s post, “Idioms”, is at http://wwwgeraldineevanscom.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~

Eccentric Phrases

If your toaster stopped working, you would probably go out and get a new one. When a phrase stops working, we’re stuck with it. We can’t send out a memo, “Stop using that one, folks.” So we’re left with phrases that confuse rather than explain. Sometimes there just isn’t a good replacement for an expression, and until a better one emerges, we use the old, broken one.

How many times do we actually “roll down” the window of our cars these days? It isn’t a rolling action on modern cars. Should we say, “She lowered the window”? How about “She pressed the lower button”? Neither sounds quite right, even if we admit that rolling doesn’t happen.

Do we “dial” the telephone? No, but what is a good alternative term for what we do? “Punched in the number” sounds rather violent. “Keyed in” might be a better term, but I think there will soon be something else, something more descriptive and creative.

We no longer put words and images “on tape”, either. I suppose “recorded” still works, since the dictionary says it is “to register for reading or future reference”.

Then there are phrases we use that are inconsistent with similar phrases, making ESL speakers confused. We have deer season, bear season, turkey season…and tourist season. We have wheat crackers, saltine crackers, rye crackers…and animal crackers.

Many terms just plain don’t make sense. We have Grape Nuts Cereal, which is neither grapes nor nuts. We have guinea pigs, which are neither pigs nor from Guinea. Your nose runs but your feet smell (not yours, but somebody’s). We park on the driveway and drive on the parkway. You might want to be known as a wise man but certainly not as a wise guy. You fill out a form by filling it in, your house burns us as it burns down. People recite at a play and play at a recital, and they send shipments by truck and cargo by ship.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same thing? Fat chance that you can explain that one!

 ~~~~~

The Poser: Name 3 books/series where the author shares recipes with readers.

The Prizes-Weekly prizes (your choice of THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY in e- or print format) drawn from the names of those who comment on the blogs as we go. Comment once/day, but the first commenter each day gets entered twice in Saturday’s drawing!

The Pitch: THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, First in The Dead Detective Mysteries, paranormal mystery. Tori Van Camp wakes in a stateroom on a cruise ship with no memory of booking a cruise, but she does have a vivid recollection of being shot in the chest. Determined to find out what happened and why, Tori enlists the help of an odd detective named Seamus. Together they embark on an investigation like nothing she’s ever experienced. Death is all around her, and unless they act quickly, two people she cares about are prime candidates for murder. Read more about this book and the author at http://pegherring.com or buy the book at http://www.ll-publications.com/deaddetectiveagency.html.

The Perpetrator: Peg Herring writes historical and contemporary mysteries. She loves everything about publishing, even editing (most days). Peg’s historical series, The Simon and Elizabeth Mysteries, debuted in 2010 to great reviews. The second in the series will be available in November from Five Star.

The Pathway: The next entry, “Being Precise” and the answers/comments to the Poser will be at http://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=pegfish

Guest Blog- Evelyn David on Writing as a Team

Writing Duets?

We're going to go out on a limb here. We're going to advise you to go against conventional wisdom about writing a book. Here's our suggestion: Find a co-author on the Internet and write 2 books and countless short stories together without ever meeting in person.

What? That sounds crazy.

We know. And we still recommend it because that's exactly what we've done and it has worked perfectly.

We know there are problems with collaboration. We've heard them all, and actually, most of them make sense…except not always. Herewith are the problems and how we've avoided them. Maybe collaboration can work for you too.

1. The creative process is by definition a solitary one and writing together only leads to a jumble of ideas.

We're not sure where the concept of the lonely artist stuck in an unheated garret pursuing his talent first was proposed as fact, but it's only half true. Yes, each of us brings to the table our own concepts and ideas. But that's a plus, not a drawback. It means we've each got someone to bat ideas off; someone to say "you've hit a homerun" or alternatively, "no offense, but that makes no sense at all." You're less likely to go off on a tangent if someone else is there to either remind you where you were supposed to be headed – or to listen if you truly believe that the new idea will only strengthen the storyline. Since it's a collaboration, where neither party has veto rights, you've got to be able to defend your choices, which can only make you plan and write more clearly.

2. You don't want to mix plaids and stripes together, or in other words, how can you combine two distinct writing styles?

That's a little tougher, but practice makes perfect. It works because of the first rule of any writing project, whether it's a third grade book report or a New York Times bestseller: Revise, Revise, Revise.

As each scene goes back and forth between us, it gets smoothed out. We both write all characters so it's less likely that the hero sounds like someone from Oklahoma (where Rhonda lives), while the heroine sounds like a New Yorker (where Marian lives). We work hard to make our characters distinct, but the overall voice of each book is Evelyn David, neither Rhonda or Marian.

3. The work load will never be equally distributed between the two collaborators.

Probably true at different points in the writing process. But like any good partnership, you each go in with honest intentions, work hard, and figure it all evens out in the end. No question that Rhonda is the tech genius of this collaboration so she handles all web site issues, including design. Marian tends to handle the business side of being an author (agent contact, bookstore relationships, publisher issues, and planning). We both do the writing, editing, and promotion. Over time we've learned each other's strengths and preferences - we shift tasks accordingly. Rhonda is the keeper of lists and files. Marian is the final word on punctuation and grammar. Rhonda likes working with photos and covers. Marian is wonderful at interviews. Neither of us is good at mingling at receptions and making small talk, but we do it anyway and commiserate with each other later. The bottom line is that we work together to achieve a common goal. Here's a clue - if you're keeping close track of the hours you spend or the tasks you handle versus what your co-author does, then you probably haven't found a partner who you trust enough to write with.

We've given a lot of thought to why we think our collaboration works and believe there are three important ingredients.

1. Neither of us has a big ego, so there are never any diva moments.

2. We share a similar work ethic. Do what needs to be done and don't worry about the credit.

3. And probably most important of all – we share a similar (maybe warped) sense of humor. When life is dark and gloomy, when we are sure we could never compose a shopping list, let alone a book, we tend to crack a joke and laugh. Writing is a tough profession, full of frequent disappointments and frustrations. Laughter is essential.

Collaboration may not be for everyone, but for Evelyn David, it's been remarkable easy and fun for us. Try it. You might like it.

Good Luck!
Evelyn David

__________

 

The Sullivan Investigation Series
Murder Drops the Ball (Spring 2011)
Murder Takes the Cake - Paperback - Kindle
Murder Off the Books - Paperback - Kindle
Riley Come Home - Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
Autographed Copies and other e-book formats available through Wolfmont Press at
The Digital_Bookshop - http://tinyurl.com/DigitalBookshop

Brianna Sullivan Mysteries - e-book series
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah
- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah
- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries
- Kindle - Nook - Smashwords

The authors of The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries, Murder Off the Books, Murder Takes the Cake, and the short story Riley Come Home, Evelyn David is the pseudonym for Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dossett.

Marian lives in New York and is the author of 11 nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics ranging from veterans benefits to playgroups for toddlers! For more information on Marian's books, please visit her web site at http://www.marianedelmanborden.com 

Rhonda lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the director of the coal program for the state, and in her spare time enjoys imagining and writing funny, scary mysteries. Marian and Rhonda write their mystery series via the Internet. While many fans who attend mystery conventions have now chatted with both halves of Evelyn David, Marian and Rhonda have yet to meet in person. 

Please check out Evelyn's website at http://www.evelyndavid.com and their blog – The Stiletto Gang - http://www.thestilettogang.blogspot.com/ for information about Evelyn David's appearance schedule and writing projects.

Writing Tips Come From Everywhere

This past weekend we had our performances of "The Altos - Like the Sopranos, Only Lower" at the community theatre here in my small town. I played Nona Alto, the mother of mobster, Tony Alto. Nona is.... how do I put this delicately? A little off. Her daughter-in-law, Toffee, says Nona is crazy, but I would hesitate to go that far. Let's just say she is sometimes in her own little world.

This was a fun character to play, and as I worked at figuring out how to portray her on stage, I realized again that figuring out how a character would act on stage is an important part of developing characters for novels.

When we develop characters for stories, we usually start with the basics of physical looks. Is she tall? Short? Thin? Heavy? What color is her hair? Her eyes? Is there something distinguishable about her looks? A scar? A tattoo? Then we add a few mannerisms that are unique to that character, but for the character to come fully alive we have to add a lot more.

As I was fleshing out my interpretation of Nona, I thought about how she would walk across the stage. It would be different from the way a confident, secure, young person would walk across the stage. What would she do with her hands? She is uncertain and anxious much of the time. So I made sure I had a tissue with me at times to 'worry' when emotions were high. To convey the fact that she suffers from slight dementia, I wore clothes and shoes and a hat that did not match and looked like what a four-year-old would throw together when playing dress-up with mom's clothes.

What prompted me to write this blog is what happened before the final performance yesterday. I was considering putting rouge on my cheeks the way women used to do fifty years ago. It was applied much differently than blush is today and looks like two round red spots. Since I don't wear make-up and don't even know how to use it, I asked my actress friend, Mia, whether I should put the rouge on. Her response? "What would Nona do."

Aha! That is the question we should always ask ourselves. It is not what we would do. It's what the character would do. That's how we create characters who become so real the reader will consider them as a brand new friend.

Well, I missed.....

...putting up a new post yesterday. Obvious to the most casual observer, right?

I had every intention of putting something new up, but as the old cliche goes, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. We had a power outage that started about eight in the morning and lasted until almost noon.

Then I only had three hours to prepare for a talk on editing I did for the East Texas Writers' Guild. Of course I had waited until Monday to do that. But I'd had a plan, and a good one, I thought when I came up with it on Sunday. I did a lot of the work I normally do on Monday mornings late Sunday and had it all ready to put up on various Web sites. That left time on Monday morning to do the blog, get a few pages written on my book, and then prepare for the workshop.

A grand plan that went to hell in a hand-basket. (Another cliche, by the way.)

I love saying, "The best plans of mice and men often go astray."  I use that cliche often. I mean, it fits, right?

But we writers are cautioned about using cliches in our stories, even though they abound in real life. If you really listen closely, we use them all the time. I decided to go on the Internet and look for some more and I found ClicheSite.com that has more cliches than you can shake a stick at.(Cliche alert.)

Here are just a few:

Many hands make light work.
Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. 
Any friend of yours is a friend of mine.
Another day another dollar.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Laugh all the way to the bank. 

What are some cliches you say frequently? Do you let your characters use a cliche now and then?

Anger - Not Always a Bad Thing

I was sorting through some handouts yesterday from grief workshops I used to conduct in my role as a hospital chaplain. Several about anger were clipped together, and when I glanced through them I realized that I have always had a problem around anger. Probably because I grew up in a family that had no clue about the healthy ways to express that particular emotion. Anger tended to erupt like some dormant volcano, and I would run to avoid the flow of lava.

It took me a long time to realize how much that instinct to run away from anger and confrontation affected my writing. I could be working on a scene that had some major conflict between two characters, and I would quickly insert reason and bring the level of conflict down.

This was pointed out to me by Stephen Marro, a producer/director in New York that I worked with for a while doing script editing and doctoring. We also wrote a few scripts together. He would come up with the ideas and the basic story beats, and I was to flesh them out. He read one of my scenes and then asked, "Where's the beef, Maryann? These people are talking this conflict to death."

So, much like I had to force myself to allow my characters to use colorful language (see my post at The Blood Red Pencil) I had to force myself to let my characters get really angry and ratchet up the conflict.

What about you? Are there emotions that you struggle with in your writing? How hard is it for you to separate yourself from your characters?

A Pitch For Liberal Arts

In a recent article, New York Times columnist David Brooks made a case for studying liberal arts in college. He said that in these difficult economic times many students are thinking they need to focus only on classes that lead directly to specific jobs.

While that is a good approach on many levels, Brooks also encourages students to study the humanities. He wrote "Studying the humanities improves your ability to read and write. No matter what you do in life, you will have a huge advantage if you can read a paragraph and discern its meaning. You will have enormous power if you are the person in the office who can write a clear and concise memo."

How many work-related memos and e-mails have you read that needed some serious editing?

Another point Brooks made about the importance of studying liberal arts was that it helps students be thinkers. It sharpens critical thinking skills and helps with understanding human behavior that goes beyond scientific study. He wrote that "deep down people have passions and drives that don't lend themselves to systemic modeling. They have yearnings and fears that reside in an inner beast you could call The Big Shaggy."

It is The Big Shaggy that prompts people to do things that we simply cannot understand or explain logically. Brooks wrote that some people are able to take the upheavals of life that emanate from The Big Shaggy and represent them in many forms. One of those forms is literature.

I tried several searches and have not been able to find a link to the whole article, and I wish I could. It would be interesting for all writers to read. I think we are all aware of the importance of having clear motivations for our character's actions, but the ability to really dig deep into The Big Shaggy would add even more dimension to the characters and the plot.

Thanks to Susan for providing the link to the Brooks Column in her comment.

Wonderful Writing Tips

I just read a great article by Elmore Leonard with some great writing tips. Many of them are ones we have heard before, but he has a knack for restating them with a bit of a punch.

He starts his article with, "These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over."

What a polite way of saying, "Pay attention."

Here is a link to the article for those who are interested.

No Resolutions

We were out of town for a few days bringing in the New Year with our children and grandchildren. Had a wonderful time visiting, playing cards, and eating waayyyy toooooo much.

Time to get serious again about exercising and dieting. Somehow that thought tends to hit a lot of us early in January when we think about how much we ate since Thanksgiving and consider losing the ten pounds we gained.

Too bad I can't be like my oldest granddaughter who loves to snack, yet is rail thin. No diets for her, but I will have to check out the latest tips on dieting.

I'm not going to make that a definitive write-it-down-on-paper resolution. I've learned over the years that resolutions and I do not get along well. But I know that I will be better off if I lose ten pounds and stick with an exercise program on a more regular basis than I have of late.

I'm also not going to write down my intent to this year finish the book I have been working on for a number of years. Reading some authors' blogs, I have picked up some advice on how to stay focused on a project, and I am going to put some of them to work for me.

The best tip was to make writing the book a priority in a working day, and that is a good suggestion for whatever project a person is working on. Don't check messages on the phone or e-mail. Don't give in to the impulse to take care of some other business first. Spend an hour working on the project, then start taking care of business.

Which means I've got to go. Didn't get my hour in with my book this morning.