Tag Archives: Nandy Ekle

Eyes On the Prize

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Eyes On the Prize

By Nandy Ekle

 

Your main character is the most important person in the story. Your readers immediately love him for good reason. He’s just a normal guy try to better himself in some way. Basically, he’s exactly like the person who’s reading your story, and that’s why they love him so much.

He’s average, he needs food, shelter, and love. And he will do anything in the world to get those needs met. Every action he takes, every word he speaks lead toward this goal. And, since those are the basic needs of every person who has ever lived, your readers are involved from the first word.

Now, there is a nemesis who, for whatever reason, wants to keep one, two, or even all three of these needs from your main character. This nemesis could be another person, a government, a circumstance, a situation, or mother nature. He could even be against himself.

But our readers want our character’s needs to be met. Remember, the reader loves the person in our story and their heart will be broken if the story ends without so much as a slight struggle. And our character has a strong will to have those needs met, which makes him that much more lovable to our readers.

So we much have struggle. The character is willing to give up nearly anything to get those needs met. In fact, he has to go so far as to give up his life to attain his goal. And this is when he becomes a hero to the reader. Even he doesn’t actually every receive his prize, the fact that he makes the sacrifice to get within arms reach will make the reader love him even more.

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

As the World Turns 

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As the World Turns 

 

By Nandy Ekle 

 

The alarm rings early in the morning. Our character turns over and sees the colors glowing through the bedroom curtain. The pinks and oranges overriding the blues and purples in the sky take her breath away. She grabs a pencil and jots some notes. 

 She steps in the shower under the scalding hot water. The pressure makes each drop of water feel like tiny little scrub brushes on her skin. Amazing, delicious, and energizing. She cherishes each pinpoint of heat that lands on her body. After she dries off she takes her pencil and paper and makes a few more notes. 

 Driving to her office she passed by a strip mall. In the parking lot a police car and a silver car were stopped. The officer stood next to open window of the car.  

Our character also passes a group of teenagers as they wait for the school bus. They all wear jeans and jackets, carry stacks of books, and peck at cell phones. One girl has jet black hair, piercings, and a tattoo on her hand. 

As our character enters her office, she takes out the pencil and paper and writes a few more notes.  

A normal person watching our character’s day on the job would think it was an average day. But she sees more. As she studies each case she is assigned, she sees potential. She sees red flags and life stories, and she sees endings. She takes out her pencil and paper and jots a few more notes, always keeping confidential matters confidential.  

During her lunch hour she turns on her audiobook and works on her craft project. As she cross-stitches, her mind tunes into the story on the I-pad. The story, of course is intriguing and one part of her mind follows closely. But another part of her mind concentrates on the style of the writer. She marvels at his words and how they unfold the tale with so much grace that even after 25 hours of listening, she is still enthralled. At the end of her lunch break, she makes a few more notes on her notepad.  

At the end of the day she drives out of the parking lot. Nothing unusual happens, until she approaches the highway. She notices the traffic backed up and slowed to a crawl, so instead of getting on the entrance ramp, she continues to drive on the access road next to the highway. 

Looking over the guardrail she notices flashing lights and orange cones. A little further down the road the EMT loads a victim into the back of the ambulance. Several twisted cars are stopped amid a ton of broken glass.  

When our character reaches her home, she pulls out her computer and begins to write.  

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

#AMWRITING

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

#AMWRITING

By Nandy Ekle

 

I will admit, I’ve been in a very dry spell. Even when I had a mood and an idea at the same time, my words sounded like something a toddler wrote. I was frustrated and afraid that after 50 some odd years, words had completely forsaken me.

And there was nothing I could do. I still had a line of characters waiting for me to tell their stories. Some of them have been in my head since I was a child in elementary school. There were also plenty new comers. They picketed through my head demanding to be brought to life on the paper.

So I would sit down and start listening to them, building their lives and the events they were so desperate to have put down on paper, only to watch the whole thing splat into a brick wall.

And I was back where I started.

So today, I decided to let it go. I started a story that is a huge cliché in a genre that’s been so saturated lately that I know my readers will roll their eyes and walk away from the pages saying, “Not another one of those!” And I completely understand. After all, that’s one of the reasons I kept putting this tale in the back corner. “Some day the genre will need to be restarted, and I will write it then,” I said over and over. But it refused to stay in the corner.

Something amazing happened when I finally turned my attention to my little cliché. Even though it’s the same old story – predictable, nothing new whatsoever – I realized the point of this average adventure is not the originality or the spectacular concept. The point of the whole entire exercise was I AM WRITING. And it felt good.

Don’t be afraid to write your worst writing ever. Whatever words you have, good, bad or, ugly—

JUST WRITE!

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

 

Facebook Page Promotion

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Facebook Page Promotion

By Nandy Ekle

 

Several years ago I met a crew of writers at a certain online writing community, which I will not name for a lot of different reasons. These writing friends and I have all left said online writing community, but we’ve kept in touch on Facebook. And that makes me a very lucky person, indeed.

One of my friends lived in Texas when I met her. Of course, the other friends who didn’t understand Texas thought we must just hang out together all the time since, of course, we both lived in the same state. What most of them didn’t understand is that she lived about 600 miles away. And that even though our state was big enough to hold both of us, it was still a huge distance away. So much so that you would never even believe it was all Texas.

A couple of years ago, she moved to the Pacific Northwest. We still keep in touch through cyberspace, and I’m very thankful for that because she is an amazing writer.

But more than being an amazing writer, Mrs. Heiser is also an incredible editor. In fact, my blog this week is about a new Facebook page she has opened called “Ask Midge.” On this page she invites the public to ask questions about writing (technical, structural, theoretical . . .) and she also gives some pretty good tips.

So, if you are on Facebook, you should look up the Ask Midge page. “Like” it, “follow” it, enjoy it.

And you can tell her Nan sent you. https://www.facebook.com/askmidge/photos/

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

 

 

Injecting Perfection

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Injecting Perfection

By Nandy Ekle

 

The twisted little body lies on the slab. So far that’s all it is, just a lifeless rag. I’ve put a suture here and there to string pieces together in an effort to make the body whole. There are a few loose ends, but those will heal once the life begins.

I have a whole ward of these lifeless little things. Some of them could be beautiful; some of them could be powerful. But all of them are mine. The only thing missing from each one is a beginning sentence.

These special little wads of bodies are ideas that I’ve had for stories. They pop in my head at random times, sometimes uncanny in their ability to find the most inappropriate moments to show up. I can be in the middle of a sentence during a conversation with a complete stranger when one of these ideas knocks on the door and says, “Guess what!” Or I can be deeply immersed in reading a work with strong hands that keep my attention, except for the split second when I hear, “Sort of like what happened to me.” Music brings them, pictures bring them, people walking down the street bring them. One time an idea spoke so loud I woke up from sleep in the middle of the night to listen.

I take the idea and lay it on a slab, gluing it down with my ink and a promise saying, “Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back,” and usually I do come back and fiddle with it a little more. Occasionally, though, they get tired of waiting on me and go on to find someone else with more time – but for the most part, they wait patiently.

So I look at this one particular idea and see the marks of where I have tried to find the right sequence of words to inject into its veins that will open its eyes. I see a lot of needle marks, but still the eyes have not opened. I do remember a flutter, though. This poor little waif is in two parts, and the second part is set. The first sentence of that scene caused the eyeballs underneath the lids to roll in a curious REM fashion, but they did not open. The first part is not there yet.

From all the words that exist in language today, there has got to be a combination that works to open these eyes. And so I will continue to look for the perfect fit, that special key that will give life to this story. Then I can move on to the next.

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

The New Kid

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The New Kid

By Nandy Ekle

 

 

I can’t take it anymore. You just run around all over the place, never say anything meaningful to me, then ignore me when you are around. I’ve gotten some deeply cryptic messages from you that make absolutely no sense, and when I try to make sense out of it, you stir it up like mud at the bottom of a lake. I’m tired of your torture and abuse, then you disappear for a long break, as if you’ve worked tirelessly for a long time.

And because of all this, I’m firing you. That’s it, muse. You’re fired. Don’t bother coming back and collecting the meager ideas and words you’ve left laying around. I don’t want to see you or hear from you ever again. You can find another writer to taunt and ridicule.

The fact of the matter is I have a new muse. He’s always around whispering to me. He has some excellent ideas and he wants me to get busy writing them. He wants me to succeed. I’m sure this new guy will be more than happy to take me straight to the top.

When I look to him for ideas, he does not look at me as if I’m ridiculous for even trying. He doesn’t give me impossible riddles that make no sense. In fact, he sits on the corner of my desk with a sweet rose, and bids me to write the stories I’ve carried in my head forever. And he tells me I will never lack the words to put on paper.

So, meet my new muse, Horatio.

Untitled

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

 

Eyes On the Prize

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Eyes On the Prize

By Nandy Ekle

 

Your main character is the most important person in the story. Your readers immediately love him for good reason. He’s just a normal guy try to better himself in some way. Basically, he’s exactly like the person who’s reading your story, and that’s why they love him so much.

He’s average, he needs food, shelter, and love. And he will do anything in the world to get those needs met. Every action he takes, every word he speaks lead toward this goal. And, since those are the basic needs of every person who has ever lived, your readers are involved from the first word.

Now, there is a nemesis who, for whatever reason, wants to keep one, two, or even all three of these needs from your main character. This nemesis could be another person, a government, a circumstance, a situation, or mother nature. He could even be against himself.

But our readers want our character’s needs to be met. Remember, the reader loves the person in our story and their heart will be broken if the story ends without so much as a slight struggle. And our character has a strong will to have those needs met, which makes him that much more lovable to our readers.

So we much have struggle. The character is willing to give up nearly anything to get those needs met. In fact, he has to go so far as to give up his life to attain his goal. And this is when he becomes a hero to the reader. Even he doesn’t actually every receive his prize, the fact that he makes the sacrifice to get within arms reach will make the reader love him even more.

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

A Very Boring Life

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A Very Boring Life

By Nandy Ekle

There was a time when, as a younger woman with three brilliant and combative children, I was convinced my life was boring. I was a stay-at-home mom who literally stayed at home, except when I was driving kids to school, driving to the grocery store, picking up kids from school, and driving kids to appointments.

It seemed like nothing exciting ever happened. To and from the schools, groceries, doctors, library, vacuuming the floor, scrubbing the floor, washing clothes, cooking dinner, bathing kids, and then putting them to bed. Then I would get up late at night/early morning, fight zombies, spiders, and various other monsters that bothered my children at night. The same old day started at 6:00 the next morning.

Yes, I really thought I had a boring life.

Then I watched a movie about my life. The main character was a secret agent for the government and his wife, a plain, average woman just like me, had no idea what he actually did. He had her convinced he sold insurance. She felt like she had a very boring life. Then she had lunch with another man and her husband sees her. So he sets up a little adventure for her.

Anyway, watching this movie taught me some things about myself. In all my cleaning and driving and nurturing, it turns out I am one of the most adventurous women in the world. I realized that not only was I a chef and chauffeur, I was also a referee, a doctor/nurse, “office” manager, banker, bookkeeper, and so on. But that’s old news. Every stay-at-home mom realizes these titles eventually.

The other thing I discovered was that our family was prone to experiences that are, um, unique. Like the time a lizard tail fell out of the dryer. Or the time my dog started barking hysterically at 3:00 in the morning. And how could I ever forget the cars that stopped working while driving down the highway or stopped at a red light. Or the plumbing that backed up. The creative scheduling and emergency shopping for school.

Now, as a mature woman whose children have grown up and flown away, I remember those boring days and think about the tons of stories I lived through.

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

 

 

 

 

 

The Mighty Thesaurus

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Mighty Thesaurus

By Nandy Ekle

Writing a story can be a little like playing chess. You want to be descriptive, but still allow the reader to imagine their own pictures. And you want your words to fit your characters.

One thing that can happen, and I’m the queen of this, is getting hung up on the same word. It’s the perfect word to describe what you’re talking about, it fits your character, and it sounds just great. However, it can become distracting to the story to hear the same word over and over. The best way to test your work for an “echo” is to read your story out loud.

When I discover this happening in my writing, I go to a thesaurus—a book of synonyms. It’s sort of like a dictionary. You type in the word that continues to show up on your pages and it gives you a list of words that mean the same thing. And sometimes there are some very interesting words in that list. Especially when you’re sitting at the desk in your office during lunch hour and people are walking around your desk.

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

 

 

 

Important Lesson

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Important Lesson

By Nandy Ekle

 

Writing courses. I’ve taken a few. Really and truly, I absolutely love writing courses. This girl begs for homework. Please, just give me an assignment, a work count limit, and a deadline. I guess that’s why I like prompts so much.

“Write a 50 word story it must be a formal gathering where a shocking announcement comes out.”

“Write a short story about a young man suffering from schizophrenia and he and his delusion are at war.”

“Start a story with this line: Looking back, he could not believe what had just happened.”

“Write a story in the form of a diary. Your main character, the diary writer, wakes up in a strange room with no idea how he/she got there.”

These are just a few I’ve used to help jumpstart myself when I get in a rut.

So now, I’m going to give you an assignment, and I really want to see your homework in the comments below. Ready?

Step 1:             Put your hands, palm side down, on the seat on which you sit.

Step 2:             Push yourself up to a standing position.

Step 3:             Walk across the room.

Step 4:             Raise your dominant hand and extend your pointer finger.

Step 5:             Take one or two steps forward.

Step 6:             Make contact with the on/off button on your television set.

Step 7:             Push that button.

Step 8:             Now listen to the silence that replaces the silliness of “the tube.”

Step 9:             Now, write what you hear.

 

Your characters don’t have to fight so hard for your attention without that blasted squawk box on.

And I write this with all the bravery in the world since I’m really aiming it toward myself.

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