Category Archives: Nandy Ekle

Submitaphobia

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Submitaphobia 

Picture a girl covered in filthy rags and smudges of dirt on her face. We don’t know if she’s beautiful or not because of the stringy hair that covers her eyes and the spots of dirt and ash on her cheeks. This is our story’s first draft, like when you are in a hurry to get supper cooked and ingredients and silverware seem to land all over the kitchen.

Now you take a warm wet wash cloth and wash your girl’s face. You brush and arrange her hair. Then you take the dirty rags she wears and burn them, handing her a fine ball gown that glistens and sparkles and heralds perfection. You dress her in that gown and step back and say, “What a perfect beauty I have created!”

Of course, the metaphor is easy to see. You have edited and re-edited and re-edited your story and brought it to the closest thing to perfection you have ever read. And you’re bursting with pride.

So the next thing you do with your beautiful perfect princess-like girl is shove her in a closet and lock the door. This is what happens when you suffer from submitaphobia.

The only cure for such a disease is to remove the –aphobia and send your darling out to the ball. She will never meet the prince locked in the closet.

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

Nandy Ekle

 

Atmosphere

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Atmosphere

I love scary stories. I love to watch them, hear them, read them. The best way to enjoy a scary story is to turn the lights down, maybe light some candles, and have a huge bowl of popcorn, or m&m’s. Curl up on the couch reading my book or cuddled up with my honey watching a movie.

Believe it or not, I also love to write scary stories. Doesn’t matter how my story starts, it always ends up on the dark side. And there is also a great way to get in the mood for that kind of writing.

Pull a chair up to the desk with just you and the computer. Turn off the lights and turn on some quiet music. Light some candles and let your imagination run amuck. The fun will begin.

Every genre has its own atmosphere. If you write romance, you might want flowers and love songs. If you write science fiction, you might want cerebral music and stars shining on the ceiling. If you write mystery, you might want a fog machine and a trench coat. Western writers might want hay and a cowboy hat in their writing space.

The point is, your writing space should be planned and arranged to create the perfect writing space that inspires your words to flow onto the paper.

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

Nandy Ekle

The Job

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Job

And 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.
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As writers we have several goals to accomplish when we write a story.

1.  We entertain. Well, of course. People who read fiction read to be entertained. A true reader will read your words and see the action and hear the dialog as if watching a movie. Therefore we write to keep their attention.

2.  We write to make a connection.  We reach out to our readers with our words and try to touch them. We want them to know who we are, what we think and why we think it. This is our voice and our shot at immortality.

3.  We write to teach a lesson or to make a statement. I used to get really upset in high school because the teacher constantly reminded us that every story has something to say. I really wanted a story to just be what it is. But as a writer I have learned that there needs to be a reason, or a theme, that drives the story through its course.

4.  And of course, we write because we have the need to create. There are characters inside our heads that scream to be heard. There are worlds that need to be described.

So we write and we tell our stories to whoever will read them. And even if no one reads them, we still write.

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

Nandy Ekle

Did You Write A Blog

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Did You Write A Blog

 Ten forty-one p.m, Thursday night, a few moments before exercise time and I still have not written my Freaky Friday blog. What to write? What to write?

I sit here with my fingers on the keyboard willing words to scroll across my brain in some sort of order that looks like an interesting piece. My fingers tap on keys and letters rush together forming words on my screen. But do they make sense?

Well, the theme is here: breaking through the block. The tools are working: letters to words to sentences to paragraphs. The form is here: big title, middle title, by-line. But is the meaning here?

Sometimes the best way to break a block is to pick up a pen or pencil, or put your hands on the keyboard, and starting typing words. Most of the time, the first few words come out forced and silly, but will soon become exactly what you were looking for. If you doubt that, just read this blog.

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

Nandy Ekle

Movie Madness

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Movie Madness

I stand in the dark warehouse next to my new friend and soon to be partner. He has definite ideas about running a night club, I have definite ideas about location and design. However we are from two different time periods and wonder if we will agree on anything.

He points to one corner and begins to describe a bandstand and a female trio singing in harmony. He says he sees dancers in period costumes from the 1940’s and the music is the big band era style.

I stop paying attention to his vision when I see my own vision come to life on the other side of the room. A modern heavy rock band plays and the audience dances in their disco outfits. The music pounds and the bodies gyrate and excitement fills the air like electricity.

As my friend and I watch our own personal visions of the blossoming nightclub, a strange thing begins to happen. The two bandstands and the two crowds of singers and dancers move toward the middle of the room. They notice each other and their music starts to merge and harmonize together. The dancers from the 1940’s are now dancing openly with the dancers from my own time period. They end with a grand stand bang and blow my friend and me across the room with excitement.

If you have nothing else to write about, describe your favorite scene from one of your favorite movies. Write as if you are the main character and you are experiencing the scene. Do not be afraid of detail, sounds, feelings, taste, sights, and smells. And above all else, enjoy!

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

Nandy Ekle

The Zone

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The Zone

 One of my favorite places to go for lunch every day is The Zone. I take my lunch and my computer and I sit listening to words without any distraction.

The Zone is not a quiet place; in fact, there’s a lot of commotion and conversation going on. There’s so much happening that sometimes I have to struggle to get it all down before it’s over. Emotions and feelings float around the room as well as thoughts and ideas. It’s a place I love dearly and always feel a little surprised when I get to go there.

The Zone is inside my head and it’s a place where the real world ceases to exist. I can listen to what my characters have to say and why they say it. I can watch what they do and why they do it. And I hear their thoughts and why they think it. When The Zone happens I feel as though I’m watching a movie in my mind and simply taking dictation. And usually, this is when I do my best writing.

I wish I could give you directions to get to The Zone. I will give you some, but it’s the kind of place that hides in shadows, like an island covered with mist. Sometimes your ship lands there with no problems, sometimes the island jumps around hiding from you. But there are some steps you can take that will help you find it.

First, take advantage of the time of day you are the most creative. Mine happens to be during the lunch hour. Sometimes I really don’t feel like writing anything until I boot up that computer and open up the word processor. Occasionally this is all it takes to get to The Zone.

Next, write a sentence. I’m not being contrite or snotty. Writing a sentence, not even necessarily a good one, but any sentence can be one of the hardest parts of starting a new story. You know the story, or at least you know some of it, but that first few words can be so intimidating. So show them who’s boss by writing them. If they aren’t the right ones, fix them later.

After you get a sentence written, close your eyes and listen to the character your story is about. If he/she is talking, the rest will fall into place.

Before you know it, you will discover that you only have thirty seconds left to clock back in to work. You’ll feel as if you just woke from a dream, only there will be pages and pages of words on your computer screen. That’s when you’ll know you’ve had lunch at The Zone.

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

Nandy Ekle

The Great Muse Meet

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The Great Muse Meet

In one week there will be an epic meeting taking place. The Muse Meet, otherwise known as Frontiers in Writing. Let me tell you about it.

New York Times bestselling authors, editors, writers, bookstore managers, English teachers, and every other type of word-loving person you can think of will be gathering under one roof. There will be learning, sharing, hugging, buying, selling, meeting, talking, yarn spinning, poetry, music, food, and handshakes galore. All genres possible—horror, romance, non-fiction, poetry, western, childrens, and just general main stream—will meet face to face. This will be the show the world has been waiting for.

When this many wordy people and imaginative people and happy people get together, only one thing can happen:  UTTER BLISS!

Don’t miss it! Your muse will pelt you with a shillelagh if you don’t bring her to this bash. And you’ll sit home with a knot on your head while the rest of the writing world has a giant party.

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

Nandy Ekle

The Great Muse Meet

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Great Muse Meet

In one week there will be an epic meeting taking place. The Muse Meet, otherwise known as Frontiers in Writing. Let me tell you about it.

New York Times bestselling authors, editors, writers, bookstore managers, English teachers, and every other type of word-loving person you can think of will be gathering under one roof. There will be learning, sharing, hugging, buying, selling, meeting, talking, yarn spinning, poetry, music, food, and handshakes galore. All genres possible—horror, romance, non-fiction, poetry, western, childrens, and just general main stream—will meet face to face. This will be the show the world has been waiting for.

When this many wordy people and imaginative people and happy people get together, only one thing can happen:  UTTER BLISS!

Don’t miss it! Your muse will pelt you with a shillelagh if you don’t bring her to this bash. And you’ll sit home with a knot on your head while the rest of the writing world has a giant party.

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

Nandy Ekle

A THOUSAND WORDS

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A Thousand Words

In the back of one of my closets is a green plastic tub full of the images of memories. There are pictures of my wedding, the births of my children and grandchildren. There are family photos, Christmas photos and birthday photos. I look in the tub and see reminders of children sleeping, playing, fighting, performing and posing. I also find reminders of places where we took those children, and when they left my house. And sometimes I find a face I don’t remember in my green tub.

One really fascinating place to find inspiration for writing is pictures, paintings, photos and mementos. Each little scrap of paper, ticket stub, greeting card or lock of hair brings up the memory of an incident.

Have you ever seen an old photo that brings memories and feelings to your mind and the story behind them begs to be told?  Did you ever come across a scrap of paper with what appears to be a coded message that you know you wrote but will never remember why or what it means? And who is the nameless person smiling at you in the photo begging for your attention?

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

Nandy Ekle

Writing Conference

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Writing Conference

The Panhandle Professional Writers is hosting Frontiers in Writing, an annual writing conference, later this month. I have been to three of these and have learned something new and exciting while enjoying every single one.

So what do I expect to get from a conference? Well, there will be a lot of different successful writers that are willing to share what they have learned in their careers. If this was the only reason I had for going to the conference, it would be enough because I still have a lot to learn about writing .

But that is not the only reason I go to the conference. I also enjoy supporting the local authors that bring their published works to sell. It’s a cool experience to buy a book written by a friend and ask them to autograph it.

But probably the number one reason I have for choosing to go to the writing conference is to meet other writers. There are no people on the earth, except maybe grandchildren, who are more fun to be around than writers. These are the people who transport me to another world with just three or four words. These are the people who introduce me to entire populations that live in the worlds they create. These are the people who never cease to thrill me with a story.

Now how much is that worth!

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

For more information about the Frontiers in Writing, visit  http://www.panhandleprowriters.org/fiw-conference

Nandy Ekle