Tag Archives: Stephen King

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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The Challenge

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The Challenge

By Nandy Ekle

 

Lately Facebook has been full of various and sundry challenges from The Ice Bucket Challenge, benefitting ALS, to your favorite bible verse. There are challenges to count your blessings, challenges to count positive events from the day, and challenges to count ways you were inspired. These are all worthwhile, thought provoking, self-examining challenges.

For those of us who love books, the hardest challenge I’ve seen out there has been to list your top ten favorite books, books that have stayed with you the longest. While I try to learn something from every single book I read–even the books I didn’t really enjoy–I must say there are a few that my mind refuses to let go of.

Of course, I must start by mentioning The Holy Bible. This is actually 66 books. And really and truly, it’s a lot a more than just fun reading. This is where I go for answers to life questions, inspiration, comfort, peace, correction, lessons, literature, adventure, romance, and magic.

The rest of the books on my list are not nearly as noble as The Bible, but I enjoyed reading them, and I still reread some them over and over. Of course, I tend to lean to the dark side of story telling. But when you think about it, every story has elements of the dark side because, it wouldn’t be a real story without a conflict. And conflict is usually connected to something dark in some way.

So, for hundreds of different reasons, here are the ten books that I will go out on a limb and add the label “favorite.”

  1. The Shining by Stephen King. This was his third book and I was in high school. I had read his first two books and liked them, so when The Shining came out, I bought it, hard back. I’ve reread it more times than I can count. Besides all that, I love a good ghost story.
  1. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Even though this is seven books, it’s really all one story. Ms. Rowling is an expert at capturing her readers immediately and making them love the characters. The world is seamless and the details are astounding. And how she keeps up with those details simply blows me away.
  1. The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snider. This is a middle reader and I was in Jr. High when I read it. Great story of children with big imaginations — one of my favorite themes.
  1. Bag of Bones by Stephen King. Another ghost story, and by The King of ghost stories. How could it not be on my list. One other thing I will mention about this book is I never knew he could write romance.
  1. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King. In my mind, the flip side of Bag of Bones. Loved it!
  1. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Now this is a very different book. A story within a story as an older writer tells a younger writer the story of her life. Excellent read.
  1. On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. I love the mini biography in the first half of the book, and the second is valuable writing instruction and advice. I keep it on my nightstand.
  1. Dracula by Bram Stoker. I voluntarily read this in high school. Now THAT’S a vampire story. And the format is amazing too.
  1. Go Ask Alice. This was actually the scariest book I ever read. I was in high school and read the whole thing in one night. Just. Wow.
  2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I have read this book to all three of my kids numerous times and to all of my grandchildren even more numerous times. I enjoy getting into the drama of it, and the kids always ask me to read it again. Imagination is the best toy we have.

So, everyone who reads this, consider yourself challenged. In the comments below, list your ten “favorite” books and we can have a fabulous discussion.

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.

 

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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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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The King

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The King

By Nandy Ekle

 

One of the rules of our critique group is if you haven’t written something new to bring for critique, then you should bring something educational. This is a great rule because it works like a deadline to keep the writing going. But in those days when the words just will not come, we can learn something new and helpful.

So, since I have written nothing new in a while, other than the business letters I write for my day job, I decided it was time to do something educational. So I decided to bring a guest to our meeting tonight.

If you remember my blog from last week, I started reading a new book and the first chapter, which is a prologue, completely, totally blew me away. Talk about words that grab you and don’t let go. This book definitely has kept me hypnotized.

So for our meeting this week I decided to take my book and read the prologue out loud, as a learning tool. So that’s exactly what I did. I took Rose Madder by #Stephen King# and read the prologue to my fellow critiquers. And guess what happened. Exactly the same thing that happened to me. They were entranced.

Thank you, Mr. King, for instructing our group tonight.

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

Who Loves You Baby

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Who Loves You Baby

By Nandy Ekle

The second and fourth Thursdays of every month I subject myself to a bloodletting beyond anything Stephen King could ever write–and I love it. These are the nights my critique group meet.

We six writers sit around a conference room table and expose our deepest thoughts and passions to each other, and then beg to be ripped apart. Afterwards, we gather our shredded souls and hug each other, thank each other, and promise to do it again in two weeks.

This group of tough word lovers is one of the finer things in life. Writing itself is a huge rush; then add reading your work out loud to friends who believe in you enough to tell you the truth about what works and what doesn’t work, what makes them think, makes them laugh, makes them cry. These wonderful brothers and sisters of ink and paper care enough to slap my hands when the writing is bad and to raise me up on a pedestal when the writing is good.

So tonight I raise my glass in the most honorable toast I can put together. You five lovelies have educated me better than I could have dreamed and I love you all. And just so you know, red is an amazingly fantastic color for ink!

So, I guess you, my dear readers, are waiting for some clever bit of inspiration from me as the muse tonight.  Okay. Here it is. Find yourself a critique partner. It really will change your writing life.

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

Who Loves You Baby

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Who Loves You Baby

By Nandy Ekle

The second and fourth Thursdays of every month I subject myself to a bloodletting beyond anything Stephen King could ever write–and I love it. These are the nights my critique group meet.

We six writers sit around a conference room table and expose our deepest thoughts and passions to each other, and then beg to be ripped apart. Afterwards, we gather our shredded souls and hug each other, thank each other, and promise to do it again in two weeks.

This group of tough word lovers is one of the finer things in life. Writing itself is a huge rush; then add reading your work out loud to friends who believe in you enough to tell you the truth about what works and what doesn’t work, what makes them think, makes them laugh, makes them cry. These wonderful brothers and sisters of ink and paper care enough to slap my hands when the writing is bad and to raise me up on a pedestal when the writing is good.

So tonight I raise my glass in the most honorable toast I can put together. You five lovelies have educated me better than I could have dreamed and I love you all. And just so you know, red is an amazingly fantastic color for ink!

So, I guess you, my dear readers, are waiting for some clever bit of inspiration from me as the muse tonight.  Okay. Here it is. Find yourself a critique partner. It really will change your writing life.

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.

Lost

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Lost

By Nandy Ekle

Okay. You’ve got a concept and you sort of have a plot—at least, you know where you want to the concept to go. You’ve got a theme and a great opening that reaches out and grabs your readers by the throat. This is going to be a great story! You can’t write it fast enough. Your characters are telling all the right things and you are humming along telling your tale and feeling wonderful.

Until a giant wall of Nothing hits you in the face. You stare at he computer screen for days and no new words appear. You re-read everything you’ve written up to this point, still nothing. You know exactly what happens next and how it happens, why, and even what comes after that. But when you type a word, it sounds like a toddler just learning to talk. You have come to *cues Psycho Shower Scene Music* Writer’s Block.

I don’t know how to cure Writer’s Block or even how to avoid it. Stephen King says the cure is to write through it. But it is debilitating enough to make you want to stick your tongue out at Mr. King.

So I tried something this week. I thought to myself, I love the challenge of being able to write anything. So I wrote to my critique partners (you’ve really got to get some of those—they’re wonderful) and asked them to assign me something to write about, just to see if I could do it. They suggested I take the main character of my story and write a characterization for her. So I did.

And I learned a million and one things about, not just a paperdoll I had made up, but a person that lives and breathes. She’s more than just a vehicle to tell my story, she’s living it. I already knew her name and things like that. I knew what she wants and why she wants it and how she’s going to try to get it and what’s going to happen when she does. What I didn’t know is what her favorite color is, what her hobbies are and why she wants what she does, other than the obvious. I needed more than just to hear her voice, I needed to feel her breath on my ear when she speaks.

In learning these things, I could see the deeper layers of my story. I can see that it’s not just the story of what and where she is now, but where and what she will be in the future and why. I learned that the little adventure she’s having now is actually just the beginning of her story, because what she wants deep down is way more than one book can handle.

In short, I now see exactly where she’s going for at least two more books.

Dear Critique Group, Thank You.

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