Category Archives: Nandy Ekle

Abracadabra

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Abracadabra

By Nandy Ekle

And now for a bit of magic. If you watch close, you’ll see it happen before your very eyes. So pay attention, don’t talk, no breathing or blinking. Ready?

I’m going to take this blank page and paint a picture using only my imagination.

We start with a pure white screen. Notice, no hint of color anywhere. Suddenly, a frisky yellow ball appears at the top of the page. Besides the bright contrast of color on the white page, you also notice the temperature around you is going up. The warmth is friendly and comforting.

You are also beginning to notice the smells of hundreds of roses. As you breathe in the distinct smell, you can see the reds, pinks, yellows, whites, and even some exotic rose colors such as blue and purple. You walk closer to a bush standing almost directly under the sun and reach out to touch a velvety petal. That’s when you feel a sharp pain in your fingertip. You didn’t realize I put thorns on my rose bushes, did you. No matter. They aren’t poisonous.

But how about the bee hiding in the center of the flower?

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

 

 

 

 

Take Your Vitamins

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Take Your Vitamins

By Nandy Ekle

I believe in taking vitamins. I’ve taken tons of vitamins of all letters for lots of years and they have kept my body healthy.

But I’ve ben running low on vitamin “w” for a while. So I pulled out a certain book and began re-reading it. Sure enough, I found my spirit and inspiration returning.

So, what is that certain book, the one full of the vitamin I crave? It’s the book, On Writing, by Stephen King.

My admiration for Mr. King is no secret. In fact, I dream of actually being considered his peer some day. But in order for that to happen I have to write more than am right now. I have the desire, I have the stories, I think I even have a slight touch of the talent. The only thing I’m lacking is the energy. And this probably because of a lack of exercise, due to my extremely low levels of vitamin w.

And so, I turn to Mr. King to recharge me. And, of course, no one can ever read On Writing and NOT feel inspired to suddenly sit down and write a thousand page novel or two. Now that my w levels have returned to normal, I will begin to exercise—tomorrow.

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

 

The Birth of a Muse

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The Birth of a Muse

By Nandy Ekle

 

Once upon a time a little girl played with a thing called a glass thermometer. This was not a toy and she knew better to play with it because it could break and get glass everywhere. When she didn’t feel good her mother would put it under her tongue or in her armpit to see of she was sick. So if she broke it, her mother would have no way of knowing if she or her brother got sick.

But it was a very interesting thing. It was a glass tube with a bulb on the end that went in her mouth. The bulb had a bunch of silver stuff in it that would go up in the tube after it stayed in her mouth for a while. Her mom had shown her what it looked like and she thought it was pretty.

So on this day, her mother was busy cooking supper and her brother was asleep. She couldn’t think of anything at all to do so she just walked around the house looking at the ceiling in a mirror, pretending the ceiling was the floor and trying to walk from one room to the next without bumping into anything. As she walked by the open bathroom door she thought she saw the sparkle of something shiny. She turned on the light, proud that she was finally big enough to reach it by herself.

There on the counter was the glass thermometer. The little girl picked it up and tried to see if any of the silver stuff was up in the tube. It wasn’t, so she put it in her mouth, under her tongue just like her mother always made her do. She stood there for about two hours, then took it out of her mouth and checked to see if the silver had moved any. It hadn’t. So she did the next thing her mother always did, she started shaking it to make sure all the silver stuff was in the bulb.

And that’s when it happened. The thermometer flew out of her hand and hit the floor.

“Oh no,” she said. She knelt down on the floor carefully so she wouldn’t get stuck in and began picking up all the little pieces of glass. After dropping the shards in the trash can she noticed little silver balls on the floor. The looked like the silver beads on her mother’s favorite necklace. She knew she hadn’t played with Mom’s necklace, but she wanted to pick up the beads so Mom could fix her necklace.

She tried to pick one up but it rolled away. She tried again and the little ball split into two balls. She could see the little balls, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not put her finger on one.

Years later, after she grew up and discovered how fun it was to write stories, she realized that the little silver balls she could never quite pick up that day so long ago, each one was a new muse.

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

 

 

Adventures

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Adventures

By Nandy Ekle

Same old thing, day in, day out. Nothing ever changes, always the same.

Or does it . . .

When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you think? Does the same thought roll across your mind every single day? If you do, try to consciously think something different. Here’s an example. Instead of jabbing the alarm clock and thinking gloomily that you have to get up, try changing the sound of your alarm. I’ve chosen a piece of music to remind me of a fantastic trip coming up later this year. So the first thing i think in the morning is about the ocean. You could change your alarm to dogs barking or babies laughing, or even a typewriter clacking away.

How about getting dressed? Well, where I work the dress code is business casual, except on Fridays. Our company uses the “casual Friday” option allowing blue jeans. So, during the week, find a way to spice up your outfit. Try playing with colors. And what do these colors do for you when you wear them?

Changing your routines can stimulate creativity. And, as we all know, a stimulated sense of creativity invites the muse to visit you — and she always brings gifts.

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

 

 

 

These Dreams

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These Dreams

By Nandy Ekle

I’m standing in a dark room. I can’t see anything, but I feel people around me. Something I had is missing and I’m looking for it. I walk slowly in what feels like a straight line, thinking I will get to the other side of the room. I hold my hands out in front of me, and I feel breezes pass in front of me as if I have just missed bumping into someone. I reach the other side of the room and discover a door knob. A phone begins to ring, but I can’t tell where the it is.

As I open the door air and light rush in. This room is full of people who appear to be frozen in the middle of an action. There’s no noise except the ringing phone. I walk through the room weaving my way around the frozen bodies. People are hanging in mid air, mid conversation, or mid action. They’re waiting for something, and I know that when I find wha’s missing, they will started to move again.

The phone rings louder and I know I’m close. I reach the other end of this new room and put my hand on the door, ready to push it open. A scrap of paper falls from my mouth and I pick it up. The words on the paper spell out, “Answer the phone.” I reach in my pocket and find the source of the ringing.

“Hello?” I say into the speaker.

“Ms. Ekle?”

“Yes?” The voice sounds familiar.

“I’ve wanted to meet you for a while.” A face representing the voice begins to materialize in my head.

“Thank you,” I answer.

“Write.” He says.

“Excuse me?”

“The people in the first room are new characters who would give anything in the world for you to write their stories. The frozen people in the light room are stuck until you finish telling their story. I’m simply telling you to write.”

“Yes, sir.” I say. “Who is this?”

“Stephen King.”

My eyes pop open and I realize I’ve been dreaming again.

Words From A Master

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Words From A Master

By Nandy Ekle

 

“As a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.”  –Stephen King

I’m making a confession here. I’ve bee a huge fan of Stephen King nearly all my life. I consider several of his books to be outright masterpieces.

I like this quote of his because it puts images in my head. Let me show you.

I’m sitting in a chair in front of my fireplace, a blanket wrapped around my legs and a book in my hand. The words march across the pages and occasionally I gasp with emotion.

I become aware of a voice in the room, actually right in front of me. When I look up I see the author squatting before me whispering. Keeping my finger between the pages, I close the book and listen to the words coming from his mouth. The story becomes alive in my head and I feel a connection with the author.

This is what makes a great book.

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

 

 

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What If

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What If

By Nandy Ekle

  1. What if . . . every night after you turn off the television and lay down in your bed, you hear whispers. You don’t find anyone in your room, or house. So you walk out on your porch and the noise is so loud you can almost make out words. That’s when you realize the stars are talking to each other.
  1. What if…you went on a picnic with your significant other. After your sandwiches, chips and cookies you lay on the blanket next to each other and watch the white fluffy clouds laze across the sky. Suddenly they begin to bunch up and split apart. That’s when you realize they are spelling words.
  1. What if . . . you listened to the dedication hour on the radio. You don’t really pay that close attention to the stories the callers tell about their loved ones, you just like the songs they ask for. Then a voice comes on the radio dedicating your favorite song to you. That’s when you realize the voice belongs to someone you knew a long time ago who has passed away.
  1. What if . . . you planned a vacation to another country. You’ve never had a passport before, so you start the process to get one. You dig through the drawers and find your birth certificate, but it’s become tattered and faded to the point it’s completely unreadable. You go to the courthouse to get a new certified copy. They take your money and pull the certificate out of the printer. That’s when you realize that everything you knew about your birth up until now was a lie.
  1. What if . . . you decided to buy new bedroom furniture. You shopped the furniture store and found exactly what you wanted–bed and mattress, nightstand, and dresser with mirror. You come home and get the old furniture ready to be taken away. As you clean out your bottom drawer, you discover something you thought was lost. That’s when you realize your life would have been totally, completely different if you had known the object was there.

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

 

Words From A Master

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Words From A Master

By Nandy Ekle

 

“As a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.”  –Stephen King

I’m making a confession here. I’ve bee a huge fan of Stephen King nearly all my life. I consider several of his books to be outright masterpieces.

I like this quote of his because it puts images in my head. Let me show you.

I’m sitting in a chair in front of my fireplace, a blanket wrapped around my legs and a book in my hand. The words march across the pages and occasionally I gasp with emotion.

I become aware of a voice in the room, actually right in front of me. When I look up I see the author squatting before me whispering. Keeping my finger between the pages, I close the book and listen to the words coming from his mouth. The story becomes alive in my head and I feel a connection with the author.

This is what makes a great book.

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

 

 

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Studying a Tableau

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Studying a Tableau

By Nandy Ekle

 

I sat in a drawing class one semester with a deaf student taking notes. The instructor had covered a table with a cloth and then laid out several random objects. There was an old shoe, a cow skull, several empty wine bottles—some standing up and some laying on their sides—and little flowers strewn around. The students were told to draw what they saw and show the relationship between each object.

In a way, we writers do the same thing. Our eyes take pictures of a group of objects, then store them away. We boot up the computer and transfer what we saw onto our word processors. Then we illustrate the relationship between each thing.

We may see a unique cloud in the sky, a broken shoe string on the parking lot, a dead bug in the grass, and a penny on a rock in the middle of a puddle of water. For some reason our brain holds on to these pictures. We describe the changing shape of the cloud as it morphs from a sheep to an alligator. Maybe the string began its life as a functional length of woven cotton, but has now become an abused cast off to be tossed into the trash can. Suppose the dead bug was on her way home to a nest of little larvae, bringing a couple of bread crumbs home to the hungry mouths before it was stepped on. And perhaps the penny was tossed to the middle of the rock by an angry man whose lunch hour was over before he could eat his sandwich because the soda jerk who took his money forgot how to count change back.

Or maybe there was some huge event that occurred that caused the cloud to ruffle its billows as the shoe lace fell from the shoe while the kid ran for cover and accidentally stepped on the bug with one foot while the other foot kicked a penny which landed right on the center of the rock in the middle of the puddle.

What do you think?

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

Stoking Young Fire

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Stoking Young Fire

By Nandy Ekle

 

So a very young person, around the age of ten or eleven, comes to you and says, I want to write a story. What do I do?” What do you say to child of that age?

Well that age of kid may not be ready to hear about plot or theme or conflict. They may not even be ready to hear about characterization.

I think one of the first things I would say to a third or fourth grader is that the key to learning to write stories is to read stories. Reading published works by successful authors can be more important than reading a textbook about how to write. We subconsciously learn to put stories together, and we learn to describe scenes.

The second thing I would tell this child is that writing stories is most like playing make believe with our friends. Instead of acting out a game of “play like,” we right down the scenarios. And this is the basis of where stories come from.

A third thing I would explain to this child is that writers write. So the best way to learn about writing is to write.

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

 

Tag word: plot, conflict, make believe.