Category Archives: Nandy Ekle

Fill In the Blank

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Fill In the Blank

By Nandy Ekle

 

The last couple of weeks I talked about my need for organization in my every day life, but the total lack of structure in my writing life. And I’ve studied and been told and shown what an important tool outlining, planning, and plotting can be for a writer.

Let me just say, whatever your writing habits are, I will never tell you you’re doing it wrong, especially if you can successfully write “The End.” I very firmly believe each writer’s methods are right for them. But I also feel it’s important to have an open mind and trying something new to be sure you have the most effective way for your writing.

Last Friday I ended in the middle of telling about one story I wrote in a completely different way from my normal seat-of-the-pants method. This particular story, I did the plotting and planning, the story boarding and characterization, and the theme and each event. Even though this story is one I love very deeply, I didn’t have as much fun writing it as I normally have. The spontaneity was gone. The surprise was gone. I felt as though I was filling in blanks to a story already written.

But as I mentioned last week, something very interesting happened. The story was successful. I entered it in a contest, and it won second place and it earned the second spot in an anthology (available on Amazon). The other thing that happened was that the main character became one of my all-time favorite characters. And I think the reason that happened is that in my characterization of her, I realized she represents both of my grandmothers rolled into one.

Now, there’s another story I wrote in my normal way. This story, I had a theme and a situation. My character had a paranormal ability, but she didn’t want to reveal her talent, so she made up a story when caught using her gift. This was where I started. As I wrote, events of the story came to life as if I were a reader reading it. For me, this is the “funnest” part of writing. The tale unfolds in my head as if I’m watching a movie. In fact, as I headed into the final scene, I still was not sure who my villain was. As one of my “movie” scenes played, the secret bad guy turned his face to me and winked. This was when I saw the end of my story. To this day, I get cold chills when I remember the scene.

This story has not found a home yet, but that’s one of my resolutions for this year.

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

 

Love Is A Rose

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Love Is A Rose

By Nandy Ekle

 

My favorite writing tool is the metaphor. This is the comparative device that shows, not tells. So here are some metaphors I’ve used, and I would love to hear about some you may have used, or seen someone else use.

Liquid mercury. Remember the old-fashioned thermometers you had to hold under your tongue, or in your armpit, or . . . somewhere else? Those little tubes contained a silvery ball of mercury that would rise when heated by your body to a line on a graph that showed what your temperature was. If one of those little glass tubes broke, the mercury fell on the floor like liquid beads, except you couldn’t pick it up. If you tried, it would change shape and roll away. This always reminds me of something that might be hard to grasp, sort of like an idea . . .

Love of books. Reading books is as much a need for me as breathing air. I need that quiet time to myself to let my imagination out to play. As a kid, my imagination ran full speed all the time and I had to learn to put it in a box during the times I was expected to pay attention to the real world. But as a writer, my imagination is a very important thing. However, it tends to shrivel up if it’s not used. And that’s what books do for me. So to illustrate this, I thought about a character from a book that falls in love with his reader. Not only does this show how much I need books in my life, it also shows that books need readers.

Spiders. I am proud to admit that I am a confirmed arachnophobe. To me, spiders are the absolute worst nightmare that ever crept on the face of the earth. While this irrational fear can be paralyzing in some situations (depending on the size of the monster), it has also given me some excellent stories. After all, who can write about that kind of fear better than someone who experiences it? So it’s in this vein I use it as a metaphor to illustrate things that are paralyzingly scary, such as a character who has an arrogant attitude and must learn to put his ego aside to save his family from a devious creature that has invaded his home to terrorize his children. The spider actually represents his fear of inability to protect the home.

So, go ahead and tell me about some of your favorite metaphors. Just post a comment down below, and don’t worry about being long-winded or short winded. I love to hear from my readers.

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

 

 

The Blank Wall and Paper

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The Blank Wall and Paper

By Nandy Ekle

I have a friend who is an artist. She paints everything from glass jars to cardboard boxes. When we moved into our house with the extremely white walls, she was so excited.

“I love your new house,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said. “The walls are so white it makes the whole house gleam.”

She looked around the room and I could see the proverbial light bulb going on above her head. “I look at those walls and see canvases just waiting for paint.”

I smiled and just went on with my unpacking.

Now, quite a few years later, I remember her telling me that, and I think about the blankest thing that inspires me. When I was a kid in school, my favorite time of year was right before school started. My mom would cut the school supply list out of the paper and drive us to the five and dime store. There we would load up on crayons, pencils, paste, and paper. Lots and lots of paper. Back at our house the supplies were doled out and I spent the last few days of summer arranging and rearranging my school supplies.

I had to touch every brand new crayon, sharpen all my pencils and smell the paste. But my very favorite school supply was all that blank paper with the blue lines, just waiting for words to be inscribed.

To this day, well past my school days, blank paper still makes my heart smile, kind of like the blank wall my friend was excited to see.

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

 

Freaky Friday

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Freaky Friday

By Nandy Ekle

 

 

I’m in a deep sleep, the first really good night sleep I’ve had in a while. I dreaming I’m sitting on the couch holding a kitten that purrs as I scratch it behind the ear. The kitten climbs up on my shoulder, then screeches in my ear. I jerk awake shaking from the shock of the alarm screeching next to my head. In my startled condition I reach for my cell phone to turn off the alarm before it wakes my husband. My hand brushes against something made of wire and it tumbles off the nightstand into the darkness of space. I hear it thump on the floor somewhere around my bed and realize it was my glasses, without which I am totally blind. Nothing else to do but turn on the light, as if that will help. Ever tried looking for glasses when you can’t see because you don’t have your glasses?

Very carefully I find my spectacles with my eyes moments before my I find them by stepping on them. I head into the bathroom sure that a hot bath and good book will improve the path my day seems to be on. Turning on the water I go to gather my clothes for the day. When I get back to the tub, I step in the water and discover I did not balance the hot and cold correctly and my lovely hot bath is actually a disappointing tepid bath, and my new book is not living up to the beautiful picture on the cover.

I suddenly realize what has happened to me. I have woken to another Freaky Friday.

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

 

Fill In the Blank

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Fill In the Blank

By Nandy Ekle

 

The last couple of weeks I talked about my need for organization in my every day life, but the total lack of structure in my writing life. And I’ve studied and been told and shown what an important tool outlining, planning, and plotting can be for a writer.

Let me just say, whatever your writing habits are, I will never tell you you’re doing it wrong, especially if you can successfully write “The End.” I very firmly believe each writer’s methods are right for them. But I also feel it’s important to have an open mind and trying something new to be sure you have the most effective way for your writing.

Last Friday I ended in the middle of telling about one story I wrote in a completely different way from my normal seat-of-the-pants method. This particular story, I did the plotting and planning, the story boarding and characterization, and the theme and each event. Even though this story is one I love very deeply, I didn’t have as much fun writing it as I normally have. The spontaneity was gone. The surprise was gone. I felt as though I was filling in blanks to a story already written.

But as I mentioned last week, something very interesting happened. The story was successful. I entered it in a contest, and it won second place and it earned the second spot in an anthology (available on Amazon). The other thing that happened was that the main character became one of my all-time favorite characters. And I think the reason that happened is that in my characterization of her, I realized she represents both of my grandmothers rolled into one.

Now, there’s another story I wrote in my normal way. This story, I had a theme and a situation. My character had a paranormal ability, but she didn’t want to reveal her talent, so she made up a story when caught using her gift. This was where I started. As I wrote, events of the story came to life as if I were a reader reading it. For me, this is the “funnest” part of writing. The tale unfolds in my head as if I’m watching a movie. In fact, as I headed into the final scene, I still was not sure who my villain was. As one of my “movie” scenes played, the secret bad guy turned his face to me and winked. This was when I saw the end of my story. To this day, I get cold chills when I remember the scene.

This story has not found a home yet, but that’s one of my resolutions for this year.

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

 

The Eleventh Hour

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The Eleventh Hour

By Nandy Ekle

As I sit looking from my keyboard to the clock and back to the keyboard, I notice the hands on the clock seem to be moving faster. This writing piece is due on the administrator’s desk before midnight. The clock giggles as the small hand is on the twelve and the long hand is on the nine. In my head I’m running around searching for words. Any word will do, big words, little words, even made up words. Just enough words I can string together to call my weekly blog finished.

A movement in one of the corners of my brain catches my eye and I see the final letters of a word as they disappear under a locked door. I glance at the clock on the wall and the second hand clicks off another moment. Desperate, I grab the handle of the door I saw the word run under. Pulling it down, the door slowly opens to the whispers of all the words I have been chasing. I grab about 250 of the and toss them on the open page of my computer screen and begin the task of setting them in order. As I get the final word in place and poke the “period button,” the three hands on the wall clock click into place on the twelve and the alarm rings. I click “send,” and my blog flies through cyberspace to the administrator’s computer.

The pressure of the eleventh hour has worked its magic once again.

What is it about last minute writing that kicks my creativity into hyper gear? As I mentioned last week, I’m an organized person in the rest of my life. I am the queen sorter, the president of filing, the czar of outlining down to a double “zz.” But when it comes to my writing life, I’m a confirmed “seat of the pantser.”

One time I got an idea and decided it would make a good story. I thought it through, knew my main idea, and had a general idea of the events. But I decided to be organized and do it the way I had been taught in school. I wrote a bona fide outline. Then I went on to the characterizations. I had all the names picked out, their appearances, and their personalities, speech patterns, even what they each wanted by the end of the story. I felt complete. I was ready to put it together. What happened was very interesting.

And the alarm has chimed. You’ll have to come back next Friday for the next installment of The Eleventh Hour. Until then,

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

Just A Few Words Before Bed

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Just A Few Words Before Bed

By Nandy Ekle

 

 

Yes, I have waited until the last minute to write my blog. Why? Because it’s what I do. I am a “pantser,” and I write my best in the eleventh hour, literally. The clock proudly says we have two minutes before eleven o’clock p.m.

I really can’t tell you why that works for me. It’s really strange because all the other parts of my life are filled with routines. I wake up, get dressed for my day job. When I arrive at my cozy little cubicle, I have another set of routines. Boot the computer, sign on to all the apps – and this must be done in the correct order – get my pad of paper from the drawer. Get my coffee, heat my breakfast, check my email . . . I even have routines for the work I do. Open the request, write the account number on my paper pad, look at notes, look at documents, find the letterhead for the letter . . .

When I get home in the evening, another set of routines begins. Change clothes, prepare a meal, eat said meal, open computer, email, Facebook, shopping sites, Pinterest, Facebook, game – or yarn – or cross stitch . . . Then I go to bed.

But my writing life is completely different. I sit in front of the computer tapping my feet on the floor, chewing on the inside of my mouth, pretending I’m not really watching television. Writing? Who knows anything about writing? There ain’t no writers here.

However, the minute my head hits the pillow, characters begin to talk to me. In fact they talk so loud that sometimes I’m nearly convinced they are standing right next to me. Or when I get in my bath in the morning, a though will come to me about a story I’ve he bouncing around in my head. Or driving down the road. Or as I sit in my cubicle at 2:30 in the after noon, wondering how to put my correspondence into a nice, formal, understandable letter.

It’s at times like these I feel the most lost. I have a brilliant idea of how to get the dog to stay out of the kids’ way. These are also the times when the muse is absolutely not in touching range.

I’ve had a paper and pencil next to my side of the bed for years. I’ve had it next to my bathtub, I’ve had it close by in my purse. So why do I never find any ideas written down to remind me of my stroke of genius, and then the idea is gone.

According to books about writing written by writers, one of the main reasons we do this is because we are not used to writing something every day. The ability to write is like exercising. Use it, or lose it.

And so, my dear writer and reader fans out there. Write something every day, even if it’s something that does nothing to keep you above water.

Congratulations. You have just received a postcard from the muse.

New Year, New Goals

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New Year, New Goals

By Nandy Ekle

We are one week into the new year and I am just now getting around to thinking about my goals for this year.

This past year brought a lot of adventure and some frustrations. I struggled with decisions regarding my health, I lived through a wild midnight storm which ravaged my house (in the words of my grandson, “Nana, your house is broke”). Because of this we worked with insurances and contractors to repair the damage, and actually came out ahead with a lot of upgrades. A few family problems, the health issues, and the culmination of that right before the Christmas/New Year holidays. And, of course, Christmas and New Year found us traveling to visit our children and our parents.

Needless to say, my writing has suffered. Oh, that’s a vast understatement. My writing has nearly completely stopped. And that, my dear Word Smith Six followers, is the source of tons of frustration.

So. We are one week into the new year. The time has come to pack all that away in a box and hide it under the bed. The time has come to look ahead and find the inspiration and the voices begging to be converted to words.

And so, beloved followers, I will make this promise. I will write a new original blog each week. I will not allow a Freaky Friday to go by without new words appearing on this blog site.

And the other side of my promise is to write at least 1000 words a day. They might not necessarily be intelligible words, but they will be my words. And according to the experts, this should strike that flame again.

Comment below and tell me about your writing goals for the 2016 year. I am very interested to hear about them.

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

Season’s Greetings

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Season’s Greetings

By Nandy Ekle

This

This Is

This Is The

This Is The Christmas

This Is The Christmas And

This Is The Christmas And New

This Is The Christmas And New Year

This Is The Christmas And New Year Greeting

This Is The Christmas And New Year Greeting For

This Is The Christmas And New Year Greeting For All

This Is The Christmas And New Year Greeting For All Those

This Is The Christmas And New Year Greeting For All Those Who

This Is The Christmas And New Year Greeting For All Those Who Follow

Word Smith Six

May your New Year be full of post cards from your muse.

A Little Magic

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A Little Magic

By Nandy Ekle

He walks on the stage with a certain flair and the audience applauds. Removing his cloak with a swirl, a deck of cards appears in his hands. He pulls them from the box as his lovely blond assistant rolls a table out in front of him. She waves her hands in an arc and prances off the stage with a huge smile on her face.

The magician lays the card deck on the table and then removes his white gloves. He shakes his arms slightly at the wrists to prove he is not hiding anything there. The audience barely breathes while anticipating how he is going to amaze them. The music swells and the lights dim.

With an almost dainty movement of his hand, he pulls several cards from the stack on his table. The magician balances them against each other in perfect harmony. He pulls another few cards and balances them on top of the first layer. As he continues building his card house, the audience leans in closer and closer. The building is growing and each layer elicits a gasp from the crowd. Deftly, artfully, the wizard draws the crowd closer and closer.

As the last card is tenderly placed at the top of the tower, the crowd has climbed onto the stage to be closer to the card house. The magician stands back for the audience to admire his work of art. As they inspect the fragile building on the table, the illusionist leans closer and blows a quick blast from his lips. Instantly the cards explode in the air and turn into snowflakes.

The audience erupts into a cacophony of cheers.

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