Monthly Archives: April 2013

BOSTON

Posted on by
1

BOSTON

“Every step tells a story”

 Freedom Trail

By Sharon Stevens

 

So many years ago I took a creative writing class at Amarillo College from Jodi Thomas and DeWanna Pace.  In the first class Jodi asked us to write a story about finding a shoe. The friend that had encouraged me to take the class had told me about this so I was prepared…somewhat.  I debated and contemplated day after day about what I would write. The whole six weeks of class I worried about my shoe. I have taken three creative writing classes since that time, as well as also attended writing conferences, and joined the Panhandle Professional Writers, one of the oldest continuous writing groups in the country. And I still hadn’t prepared my thoughts on shoes.

Jodi explained that the best advice she ever received was, “Put feet to your dreams.”

And I couldn’t quit worrying about my shoe.

Some time ago I watched a Native American storyteller, Eldrina Douma, share a story at the Branding Iron Theatre at WTAMU about finding a moccasin, and that this was the spirit of her grandfather reminding her of home. After her performance I asked her what gave her the insight to share such a story and she said she had taken Jodi’s class and this was what she had written about the shoe.

A few weeks ago I was watching a news program about Boston and across the screen I glimpsed one of the road signs for their Freedom Trail exclaim, “Every step tells a story.” I was so moved by this simple statement I wrote this down and referred to it over and over and over again, never knowing what an impact these five words would hold for me. And I could NEVER fathom that they would connect to a tragedy in this dedicated and patriotic city.

There are no words to explain or describe a story such as this. You can write every thought using all phrases and dictionary definitions and still you can’t come up with anything close to the memories the whole world will suffer from now on.

At the bookstore we had a family attending New Student Orientation at WTAMU and the mom asked about crime in our community and whether it was safe. You could see as the weight lifted off their shoulders as I explained how closely our campus police, sheriff and police department work together. The dad explained that they lived close to Virginia Tech and they didn’t want to ask, but since we shared about our community so freely they were greatly relieved. Another visitor came into our store and when I asked her where she was from she was very evasive. She said they were from Colorado and after much prodding she explained she was from Aurora Colorado. She just didn’t want to say as whenever she shared she got funny looks and had to tell everyone what she knew.

Someday a family connected to each of these tragedies may step into our community looking for a safe place to rest. As all those who witnessed the Boston bombing and the kids grow, and leave their homes, we may be the ones they turn to as they journey through life. They may come to the musical drama TEXAS or our Panhandle Plains Historical Museum or any of our countless museum or attractions. With the new marketing campaign of “Make Memories in Canyon” they may travel to our area to find a sense of fun or a moment of peace. Who knows?

The Freedom Trail will forever be marred with the blood of those killed and injured. And of course the trail itself is a reminder of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War. And even though the trail may be miles away from the actual bombing, as far as our hearts are concerned the whole city will be connected with pain and ugliness.

I just hope and pray that families will once again walk in the trail of freedom, but that no one ever again has to write a story such as this, and that NO ONE has to follow in the footsteps of the bomber, or the victims, or their families.

I just don’t think I could walk a mile in their shoes.

From the Freedom Trail website…. Though the Hub was filled with marvelously well-preserved historic sites — ranging from Paul Revere’s house and the Old North Church to the Old State House and the Old South Meetinghouse — there was no organized route linking these gems together. So in March 1951, Bill Schofield, columnist and editor for the Herald Traveler, wrote to suggest that citizens get together to create the link that would tie the story of the American Revolution together making it easy and enjoyable for residents and visitors. Businessmen and women, elected officials, and non-profits worked together to designate a walking trail on Boston’s sidewalks in front of 16 historically significant buildings and locations. What to call the new path? Rejecting Puritan Path, Liberty Loop, and Freedom’s Way the group settled on the Freedom Trail. Now a national brand, trademarked by the Freedom Trail Foundation, it sets the standard for historic trails.

Pushing Deadlines

Posted on by
Reply

Outtakes 90

 

Pushing Deadlines

By Cait Collins

I have no problem making appointments on time. Usually I’m a few minutes early. I try to apply the practice to my writing career. While I’ve done some of my best writing in a crunch, I do not recommend the practice. Pushing the envelope or missing the deadline could have serious consequences. Lose the idea a deadline is a guideline. Signing a contract is a commitment to provide the project by the specified date.

Begin working on the project immediately. If the research is complete, writing or editing can be set aside temporarily so that another project can be started or completed. Never wait until the last minute to start an assignment. Catch up is easier than a last minute start.

Planning and prioritizing are required to meet those multiple commitments. I use a white dray erase board and a planner to keep me on track. Every assignment is noted in my planner by date received and the due date. The white board tracks the progress of my projects. I do not use different planners and white boards for my career and my personal commitments. Dual tracking opens the door to double booking or missed appointments.

Each writer must develop his own method for tracking contracts, research, submissions, and personal commitments. It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation. Whatever works, make every effort to get the project in on time. Life happens. None of us are immune to illness or the unexpected computer crashing. When life intervenes, contact the agent or editor immediately and explain why you may not be able to meet the contracted date. If given an extension, finish the work and submit it before the expected date. A one-time delay might be overlooked, but repeat offenses could damage a career beyond repair. When the decision comes down to two equally talented writers, the nod will most often go to the author with the best record for dependability.

MAKING SENSE OF THE SENSES

Posted on by
Reply

Making Sense of the Senses

How does the loss of sight affect your hearing?

What color does an orange smell like?

How loud is an inner voice?

Can you describe how the wind feels?

What does sour taste like?

When I am writing, it’s easy to visualize what I want my characters to see and feel or even smell. However putting it down on paper so that the reader can clearly see them is a difficult task. For example, if I write, “He walked into the room and gazed at the beautiful painting hanging on the wall.” What does the reader see? What object is displayed in the painting? What colors make the painting beautiful? How is it framed?

This dilemma came to life for me when the main character of my novel, UNLAWFUL WORDS, suddenly goes blind. Writing what he saw with his eyes came to an abrupt halt. How do I write his experiences now?

A blindfold

Using a blindfold I spent several hours experiencing the darkness. Immediately I began to depend on my hearing, turning my head from side to side trying to capture all the sounds around me. My hands automatically reached forward hoping to feel something familiar and my feet slowed their steps to prevent stumbling. The objects once identified by sight now had to be described by feeling the texture, or the smell. These are the details that help the reader understand what the character is experiencing.

In your writing, use the basic senses such as taste, touch, hear, see, smell. Be careful not to give the reader sensory overload by giving a long string of description using all five sense on every situation, when generally the use of two or more different senses can tie the picture together for the reader.

Rory C. Keel

Motivation #3

Posted on by
Reply

Motivation #3

By N. Bright

For self-preservation, writers must learn how to take the critiques that go along with the publishing business as objective feedback and move on. It is really the hardest thing to do and maintain productive momentum as well. You have to keep cranking those pages out, if you ever want success.

I’m blogging about ideas to help you stay motivated.

Read Author Bios

THE TALE OF BEATRIX POTTER by Margaret Lane, published 1946 by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd inspires me to learn more about story craft. Beatrix spent her days as a little girl in a third-floor retreat of Bolton Gardens in London, where she drew pictures and wrote stories about her pets and kept detailed field journals of plants she discovered while summering in Scotland every year.

“…she was very rarely sent for out of the nursery or taken anywhere, and she never went to school.”  Thinking of that lonely child breaks my heart, or maybe I can relate since I’m an only child, but oh, what wondrous things she created in her solitude. It wasn’t until her mid-thirties that she got the notion to self-publish her own illustrated children’s book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

For inspiration, read about the writing career of your favorite authors. The internet is abundant with Q&A’s, podcasts, and website bios.  After opening a particularly biting rejection, I could not force myself to write much of anything.  I spent one day job shuffling piles back and forth across my desk, and then I spent lunch break watching podcast interviews in which authors talked about the spark and inspiration behind their novels. Their experiences motivated me to keep going and it also reminded me how this business runs like “molasses going up hill,” as one author described her career.

The roadblocks and successes of others can be an inspiration to you.

What Motivates You?

What motives you to keep writing and submitting, despite the rejection and bad reviews? We’d love to hear from you, too.

Thanks for joining us at WordsmithSix!

www.nataliebright.com

Lost

Posted on by
2

POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Lost

By Nandy Ekle

Okay. You’ve got a concept and you sort of have a plot—at least, you know where you want to the concept to go. You’ve got a theme and a great opening that reaches out and grabs your readers by the throat. This is going to be a great story! You can’t write it fast enough. Your characters are telling all the right things and you are humming along telling your tale and feeling wonderful.

Until a giant wall of Nothing hits you in the face. You stare at he computer screen for days and no new words appear. You re-read everything you’ve written up to this point, still nothing. You know exactly what happens next and how it happens, why, and even what comes after that. But when you type a word, it sounds like a toddler just learning to talk. You have come to *cues Psycho Shower Scene Music* Writer’s Block.

I don’t know how to cure Writer’s Block or even how to avoid it. Stephen King says the cure is to write through it. But it is debilitating enough to make you want to stick your tongue out at Mr. King.

So I tried something this week. I thought to myself, I love the challenge of being able to write anything. So I wrote to my critique partners (you’ve really got to get some of those—they’re wonderful) and asked them to assign me something to write about, just to see if I could do it. They suggested I take the main character of my story and write a characterization for her. So I did.

And I learned a million and one things about, not just a paperdoll I had made up, but a person that lives and breathes. She’s more than just a vehicle to tell my story, she’s living it. I already knew her name and things like that. I knew what she wants and why she wants it and how she’s going to try to get it and what’s going to happen when she does. What I didn’t know is what her favorite color is, what her hobbies are and why she wants what she does, other than the obvious. I needed more than just to hear her voice, I needed to feel her breath on my ear when she speaks.

In learning these things, I could see the deeper layers of my story. I can see that it’s not just the story of what and where she is now, but where and what she will be in the future and why. I learned that the little adventure she’s having now is actually just the beginning of her story, because what she wants deep down is way more than one book can handle.

In short, I now see exactly where she’s going for at least two more books.

Dear Critique Group, Thank You.

Congratulations. You have just received a post card from the muse.

SWORDDRILL

Posted on by
Reply

SWORDDRILL

Sharon Stevens

I was so sorry to have missed the last Panhandle Professional Writers meeting due to a family emergency. Jan Epton Seale spoke several years ago at a conference at WTAMU, and it was such a joy to hear her stories. I purchased one of her books and stuck it in my bag. The next day my husband, mom and aunt would be making our yearly trek to the family homestead in East Texas for a reunion, and then for the Sunday service at the little country church. This book would be something to take along for the trip.

After we got on the road I pulled out the book, explaining the story. Jan’s father was a Baptist preacher and her book contained poetry and snippets of family and community life in a small town. I was encouraged to read out loud. Could be it was to keep me from talking. Either way the miles began to pass as I started turned the pages. One of the chapters had to do with Sword Drills. We were Methodists except for my husband, and he instantly remembered this Baptist tradition. The kids in Sunday school would line up holding their closed Bibles in front of their chest waiting for the signal. The teacher called out a Bible verse, and the child who was first in finding chapter and verse won the drill.

This led each of us to reminisce about memories growing up. We shared about Church picnics, (fun whatever the faith), Baptism (sprinkling versus dunking), fire and brimstone (the Methodist church doesn’t have too many pulpit pounding services.)

When we arrived at the church my great aunt was sitting in her pew with several friends clustered around her. I took Jan’s book and began circulating among those gathered at the church. Each one signed the inside after I told them I would be giving it to my aunt after the service as a gift and record of the memories of our time together.

My aunt was over ninety years old and she sent me a letter telling me how much she enjoyed reading and rereading the stories and remembering each person at the church that day. I was assured by her family that she cherished this until her death years later.

As writers we may not know the journey our stories will take when they are published. Who can fathom how far they may travel? Just think, Jan Seale wrote her book from a Baptist standpoint of her childhood memories, but it was shared several years later to those with a common faith. I so wanted to tell her at the Panhandle Professional Writers meeting how much this book meant to me, and how I shared it with others. I know that to a writer there is no greater accolade.

Recently I saw a facebook post encouraging people to write fan letters to five favorite authors. There are so many in my life that I need to write to. Loula Grace Erdman, Jodi Thomas, Natalie Bright, DeWanna Pace, and now Jan Epton Seale, are just a few out of thousands on my “bucket list” that deserve to be honored. I know that it will take a lifetime to list them all, and then another to put words to paper. How can I ever find the write words? So little time and so many thoughts.

But, when I do finally sit down to focus on the task at hand, in the back of my mind, with each note written, I will always remember Jan, and the sword drill.

Alternatives

Posted on by
Reply

Outtakes 89

Alternatives

By Cait Collins

There are times when no matter how hard I try, I cannot shift from my day job to my job as a writer. Long hours, stress, and continued interruptions can and will disrupt concentration and creativity. Just because the new pages don’t come does not mean a writer shouldn’t use writing time productively. These are my suggestions.

  • Free write. Turn off your internal editor and write non-stop for ten to fifteen minutes.
  • Write one long sentence. Use pen and paper. Select a topic such as “My first date was…” Do not use any punctuation. Instead use conjunctions and connectors: and, but, so, then, so then, when, neither/nor, either/or, and so, because, etc. Write for five minutes.
  • Use your writing time to edit previous chapters or sections in another project. You can accomplish a lot in half an hour.
  • Work a crossword puzzle. It’s a good way to work on your vocabulary and spelling.
  • Do research for your project. By using this down time to fill in the blanks, you will not need to interrupt your creative process later.
  • Catch up on email, submission follow up, and social media. It’s also a good time to update your website and author page.

These are just a few suggestions for keeping your scheduled writing time productive. Down time should never be lost time.

Craft a Bridge

Posted on by
Reply

Craft a Bridge

By Rory C. Keel

The Writer

Within the writer is an individual not much different than his readers and in some ways similar to his characters. Filled with personal life experiences and holding a small piece of the lives of individuals around them, the writer can create worlds and invent unique characters to fill them.

The Reader

The reader wants to know about the writer’s characters. He is curious about the details of the lives written on the pages of story. The reader says Show me, let me ride with them, Let me join in the battle, make me laugh or reveal the suffering and let me cry.

The bridge between the two

The bridge between the writer and the reader is the book. Study the craft and write in such a way that it compels the reader to cross the bridge to find the answers to his curiosity.

Motivation #2

Posted on by
Reply

Motivation #2

by N. Bright

Do you still waste creative energy fretting over things you can’t control, like rejection letters you can understand or bad reviews from snarky people? I’m blogging about motivation and self-discipline, and finding way to stay inspired.

Read a Book Relating to Your Story’s Theme

Whatever the theme, setting, time period, or genre of your current work in progress, read articles or books relating to that topic. Have you found a picture of your main character’s home? What is the floor plan? Have you researched the history of the town your story is set in?  What about vehicles, food, or clothing? The list is endless.

Bookstore Treasures

A recent rummage through a used-book-story resulted in a 1st Edition copy of A-WOMAN-TENDERFOOT by Grace Gallatin Seton Thompson. This treasure was published in 1900 by Doubleday. I’m holding a 100 year old book in my hands! It’s about camping and backpacking in the Rocky Mountainswritten by a Victorian city girl who refused to allow her husband to vacation out west without her. I loved her adventurous nature.

In her own words, “Dear woman who goes hunting with her husband, be sure that you have it understood that you do no cooking, or dishwashing… Cooking out of doors at best is trying, and certainly you cannot be care free, camp life’s greatest charm, when you have on your mind the boiling of prunes and beans, or when tears are starting from your smoke-inflamed eyes as you broil the elk steak for dinner.”

Her positive nature and sense of adventure when she road through the mountain snow or shot her first elk for their dinner shed much wit on her experiences out west. I hope I can convey the same sense of wonder and freedom in my historical westerns for kids.

Bury yourself in your story. When you’re not writing, you can read about anything and everything relating to your novel.

What Motivates You to Keep Writing?

Over the next few posts, I’ll be sharing insight on motivation, and we’d love to hear from you, too.

Thanks for joining us at WordsmithSix!

www.nataliebright.com

A Pinch of Rodeo – STEALING GAS

Posted on by
Reply

A Pinch of Rodeo

By Joe R. Nichols

 

STEALING GAS

Tom Reeves moved in with me when he attended college at Panhandle State University in Goodwell, OK. He had his Pro-card, I was still on my permit. If you gave your membership number to Tom, get ready. He would have you entered in every rodeo from Galveston to the Yukon.

We mounted my old Cadillac one morning to leave on a run. We stopped to get gas at a local fuel merchant in Guymon, where I lived. I pumped the petro, Tom used the restroom. He came out about the same time I had her full, and we took off. A few miles down the road, Tom says, “Joe, did you pay for the gas?”

I said, “No, I have this,,,”

He spun a quarter turn in his seat toward me and interrupted, “You didn’t pay for the gas?” he blurted in a near panic.

Now, I love practical jokes, and it’s not often you get the opportunity to have one handed to you like this. I got him good.

“No, I didn’t pay for the gas, I thought you did.”

“I didn’t pay for the gas,” he said. His eyes were big and his voice quivered.

“You went in there, I never left the car.”

“I just went to the bathroom, I didn’t buy the gas.”

“Oh, I thought you paid for it,” I said disgusted.

“We gotta go back, Joe.”

“Aw, I bet we can get away with it.”

“No, Joe. You gotta go back.”

What I had started to say when he first asked me if I paid for the gas, was; “No I have this fuel card that lets you buy gas 24 hours a day.”

The pumps were at this old filling station that had nothing to do with the tire shop using the building where Tom used the restroom. He never saw me put the card in the pump to turn it on.

“Tom”, I said sternly, “Don’t be jacking with me, you bought the gas didn’t you?

No, all I did was use the bathroom. Turn around and go back.”

“Their not going to catch us now, lets just go on.” I sped up and started looking in the rear view mirror.

“No, you have to go back, they probably got our tag number and called the cops.”

I sped up a little more, “Lets see if we can get away with it.”

By this time, Tom had both feet up in the seat, like he was getting ready to jump. “Come on Joe, turn around, we’ll get caught. We can’t do this.”

I wanted to carry it on some more, but the fear on his face brought out my laughter. When I could control myself enough to explain, he didn’t know if he should believe me or not. I had to show him the card before he settled down.

Tom won over 1.7 million dollars in his career, qualifying for the National Finals 18 times, and won the World Championship in 2001. What I told him that day was certainly applicable. “It’s a good thing you can ride broncs, because you don’t like to work, and you’re way to nervous to steal.”