Category Archives: Nandy Ekle

Borrowing Ideas

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Borrowing Ideas

By Nandy Ekle

I’m obsessed with stories. I read every minute that I can, and I’ve recently discovered a new time and place I can read. I’ve learned all about audio books and I listen to them while I drive to and from work. And I’m SO hooked. As a matter of fact, as much as I love music, I have not listened to the radio or my playlist in a long time because I’m “reading” instead.

This past week I was listening to a book while driving to work one morning and the narrator read something very interesting. He read, (paraphrased) “Imagine you are walking in the woods and you see yourself running toward you and the face on the running you is contorted with fear.”

So guess what my writer’s mind started doing. Yep. I know it’s someone else’s idea, but ideas are not copyrighted. I could take that idea and write a completely, absolutely totally different story from the one this idea came from (and you can look for something like this from me sometime in the future).

This subject sort of fits with the blog Cait wrote last week about Braylan’s miner. If you don’t remember what I’m talking about, go to Cait Collins’ blog and read Outtakes 103, Braylan’s Contest. She writes about a photo of her young friend, “Braylan” and his new friend, The Miner. She challenged readers of the blog to write a synopsis of a story about what would happen if Braylan’s miner came to life. This is an example of many different versions of the same idea.

By the way, you really SHOULD go check out Cait’s contest. Sounds like a great writing exercise, and tons of fun.

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

 

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Big Dreams

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Big Dreams

By Nandy Ekle

What do you dream about when you sleep? Do you have fantastical visions of pink and purple grasses and talking trees underneath a turquois moon? Or maybe you dream you’re falling and know you must wake up before you hit the bottom. I once dreamed a scary clown was lying on the floor between my bed and the wall. I woke up when my son cried from another room because zombies were chasing him, but I was afraid to get up because I didn’t want the clown to grab my ankle.

The world of psychology tells us that dreams are our subconscious minds sending us messages. While some of these messages are very easy to understand (dreaming of an accident may cause us to be more cautious during the day), most of them are so cryptic we have a hard time decoding them.

If we wake up and can remember some of what our dream was during the night, that might be a clue that we have the makings of a story. I like to write down things I saw during the night, people I might have met, and feelings I might have had. Somewhere in the hazy illogical world of night vision, an interesting subject or character will appear, and you can fill in whatever blanks you might have and come up with a great tale.

Keep a pencil and paper near your bed so you can write down any parts of a dream as soon as your eyes pop open in the morning before it withers away in the sunlight. Keep a dream diary. Find music that brings back some of the feel of what you dreamed. You’ll have a great story beginning.

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

Stuck

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Stuck

By Nandy Ekle

Writer’s block. It’s almost as scary a word as “spider.” In fact I’ve used the image of a huge hairy spider to describe writer’s block.

This time I discovered an exercise to help cut a hole through the wall between me and my words. I wrote a little essay describing my plight.

“I’m looking through a window in a door and I see all the characters I ever wrote. They’re all frozen just like the commercial about digital photos that are never downloaded from the camera. Some are frozen in mid jump, some are frozen in mid dialogue, some are frozen in their tears. What a painful way to freeze. I see pleadings in their eyes, pleading me to set them free and let them live out their stories, but I am helpless.

Maybe that’s why this coldness is so frightening. I can’t do anything to help them. The words I have played with all my life are locked up in the toy cabinet across the hall and a huge spider guards them. I must find the key to get them back out!”

As soon as I finished the essay, I wrote a character sketch for my latest story. In doing so, I worked out the problems with the plot.

If you have a wall between you and your words, write something. It will break the wall, allowing your story to write itself.

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

Grand Week

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Grand Week

By Nandy Ekle

This week has been a very special week for us. For the first time, we have had all of our grandchildren with us. And let me tell you, it has been a great Grand Week. Our oldest is six years old and the youngest is twelve months. And watching them all laugh and play, sing and dance has been an extremely amazing event for us.

One of the wonders of this week, other than the obvious of just having them close to us and enjoying their interactions with each other has been their games. They all have super busy imaginations and they came up with some of the most creative ideas I’ve ever heard. The girls put together a singing group and practiced a specific song until they were comfortable enough to sing it in public and even have a grand finale ending. The boys played cars and car tracks. They all colored pictures and drew on paper. And Nana read stories.

So what does this have to do with inspiration for writing (other than gloating that I got to keep the grands this week)? Listening to the stories the kids made up sparked my own imagination. Each game they played, each song they sang, each story they told stuck in my own head and took a corner to mature in. And, of course, they will get all credit for the ideas they gave their nana.

If your imagination feels like it’s running dry, spend a few days listening to children play together. The well of ideas will suddenly grow too deep to keep up with it.

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

Heart

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Heart

By Nandy Ekle

The heart, the center, the core, the theme, the main idea. This is a very important part of your story. The heart is what the story is about.

Look at anatomy. On the outside we see skin, hair, fingernails. But we don’t see what’s under the skin. We don’t see the bones, the muscles, or the blood in its vessels. But we can look at the skin and see the evidence of those deeper body parts. Our skin has a firm shape because of the bones under it and it’s warm and has a rosy color because of the blood being pumped by the heart through the blood vessels.

Our stories are the same. We talk about story layers all the time, and that’s another good analogy—the onion theory. On the topmost layer of the story you have what’s happening at the moment. The next layer might be what’s going on inside the characters’ heads, and there might be a layer of tension between the characters because of the relationship between them. You could even have a layer of discovery and healing when the relationships change. But the very center of the story, the heart, is what the whole thing is really all about.

The other definition of “heart” I want to talk about sort of fits parallel with this one. Heart equals feelings. One of the best ways to connect with your reader is with emotions. You have a main character that wants something so much they are willing to risk everything to get it. You want your reader to feel this yearning and hunger as much as the character. You want your reader to feel every struggle, every disappointment, every victory with your character. When that happens, the center layer of your story goes right into the reader’s heart and they learn the same lesson the character learns.

In my blog next week, we will look at ways to burrow down into a reader’s heart and make your story become their story.

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

I Love A Terrible Book

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I Love A Terrible Book

By Nandy Ekle

In his book, On Writing, Stephen King says, “So we read to experience the mediocre and the outright rotten; such experience helps us to recognize those things when they begin to creep into our own work, and to steer clear of them. We also read in order to measure ourselves against the good and the great, to get a sense of all that can be done. And we read in order to experience different styles.”

When I started writing my prose was a stream of repetitious flowery poetic vomit. I did keep to the rule of three, but everything I wrote repeated itself three times. I had three metaphors, followed by three adjectives in a long sentence with three complex parts. I had endless descriptions of every molecule in the space my characters inhabited. I wrote conversations that sounded like Shakespearean type speech. I was determined to wow the world with how many words I knew and how well I could put them together. And to make matters worse, I defended my writing style to anyone who criticized it.

One day I picked up a book by an author who actually has a fair size following and began reading. It didn’t take long for me to realize that my style was a lot like his. The kicker to this was that I hated his book. I read another one of his stories, and didn’t like it even more than I didn’t like the first one. And it seemed that the more of his writing I read, the less I cared for him as an author.

I took another look at my own stories and cringed with embarrassment. It didn’t take long for me to re-evaluate my style and change.

I have realized that even though I will never be a fan of this particular author, I am very grateful for having read his books. He was as effective a teacher as a doctorate of the English language would be.

When reading a story, whether an article in the newspaper, confession magazine, or epic novel, pay attention to the author’s style. If it’s good, learn from it. If it’s not so great, learn from that too.

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

Grand Week

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Grand Week

By Nandy Ekle

This week has been a very special week for us. For the first time, we have had all of our grandchildren with us. And let me tell you, it has been a great Grand Week. Our oldest is six years old and the youngest is twelve months. And watching them all laugh and play, sing and dance has been an extremely amazing event for us.

One of the wonders of this week, other than the obvious of just having them close to us and enjoying their interactions with each other has been their games. They all have super busy imaginations and they came up with some of the most creative ideas I’ve ever heard. The girls put together a singing group and practiced a specific song until they were comfortable enough to sing it in public and even have a grand finale ending. The boys played cars and car tracks. They all colored pictures and drew on paper. And Nana read stories.

So what does this have to do with inspiration for writing (other than gloating that I got to keep the grands this week)? Listening to the stories the kids made up sparked my own imagination. Each game they played, each song they sang, each story they told stuck in my own head and took a corner to mature in. And, of course, they will get all credit for the ideas they gave their nana.

If your imagination feels like it’s running dry, spend a few days listening to children play together. The well of ideas will suddenly grow too deep to keep up with it.

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

Birthday Feast

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Birthday Feast

By Nandy Ekle

At my age a birthday is really more dreaded than anticipated. Women my age tend to symbolically stop having birthdays and do what they can to keep any shred of youth they are able to keep. But most women my age don’t have the experience I had theis week.

Like a lot of women my age, dieting is a daily battle. I have recently been successful on a great plan, but in the past few months, my will power has melted. One thing that has not ben much help in this area is the wonderful, wacky and insanely fantastic group I work with. There are twelve of us, if you count the manager (and let me emphasize, she most definitely does count). So that’s an average of one birthday every month. The custom is that the person whose birthday was last orchestrates the celebration for the next person’s birthday. And the rule of thumb has always been a themed food spread, birthday honoree’s choice.

So a very unique and special feast took place this week. They al know about my struggles with The Diet, and they all know my love for stories. So the feast we had this week was a feast of words. Each and every person on our “team” chose a passage from their favorite book, and then took turns coming to my desk to read these jewels.

That evening I came home and started reading the new book my husband gave me.

When your appetite for words is low, plan a pot luck word spread.

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

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

 

Birthday Feast

By Nandy Ekle

 

 At my age a birthday is really more dreaded than anticipated. Women my age tend to symbolically stop having birthdays and do what they can to keep any shred of youth they are able to keep. But most women my age don’t have the experience I had theis week.

Like a lot of women my age, dieting is a daily battle. I have recently been successful on a great plan, but in the past few months, my will power has melted. One thing that has not ben much help in this area is the wonderful, wacky and insanely fantastic group I work with. There are twelve of us, if you count the manager (and let me emphasize, she most definitely does count). So that’s an average of one birthday every month. The custom is that the person whose birthday was last orchestrates the celebration for the next person’s birthday. And the rule of thumb has always been a themed food spread, birthday honoree’s choice.

So a very unique and special feast took place this week. They al know about my struggles with The Diet, and they all know my love for stories. So the feast we had this week was a feast of words. Each and every person on our “team” chose a passage from their favorite book, and then took turns coming to my desk to read these jewels.

That evening I came home and started reading the new book my husband gave me.

When your appetite for words is low, plan a pot luck word spread.

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

Birthday Feast

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

 

Birthday Feast

By Nandy Ekle

 

At my age a birthday is really more dreaded than anticipated. Women my age tend to symbolically stop having birthdays and do what they can to keep any shred of youth they are able to keep. But most women my age don’t have the experience I had theis week.

Like a lot of women my age, dieting is a daily battle. I have recently been successful on a great plan, but in the past few months, my will power has melted. One thing that has not ben much help in this area is the wonderful, wacky and insanely fantastic group I work with. There are twelve of us, if you count the manager (and let me emphasize, she most definitely does count). So that’s an average of one birthday every month. The custom is that the person whose birthday was last orchestrates the celebration for the next person’s birthday. And the rule of thumb has always been a themed food spread, birthday honoree’s choice.

So a very unique and special feast took place this week. They al know about my struggles with The Diet, and they all know my love for stories. So the feast we had this week was a feast of words. Each and every person on our “team” chose a passage from their favorite book, and then took turns coming to my desk to read these jewels.

That evening I came home and started reading the new book my husband gave me.

When your appetite for words is low, plan a pot luck word spread.

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