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Reading Challenge

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Reading Challenge

By Nandy Ekle

 

 

I found this challenge on line and got my attention. Let’s all give it a try.

During this year I am challenged to

  1. Read a book I read in school.
  2. Read a book from my childhood.
  3. Read a book published over a hundred years ago.
  4. Read a book published in the last year.
  5. Read a non-fiction book.
  6. Read a book written by a male author.
  7. Read a book written by a female author.
  8. Read a book by someone who isn’t a writer.
  9. Read a book that became a film.
  10. Read a book published in the 20th century.
  11. Read a book set in my hometown.
  12. Read a book with someone’s name in the title.
  13. Read a book with a character with my first name.
  14. Read a book with a number in the title.
  15. Read a book with over 500 pages.
  16. Read a book I can finish in a day.
  17. Read a previously banned book.
  18. Read a book with a one word title.
  19. Read a book translated from another language.
  20. Read a book that will improve a specific area of my life.
  21. Read a book written by someone younger than me.

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

 

Current Reading Material

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Current Reading Material

by Adam Huddleston

 

I’ve nothing too deep (or intellectually stimulating for that matter) this week. I’m just letting ya’ll know what I’m currently reading.

My bookmark currently rests about a quarter of the way through the second novel in Stephen King’s Bill Hodges trilogy; Finders Keepers. I finished the first novel Mr. Mercedes awhile back and have the final book, End of Watch sitting on my bedside table. I’m also making my way (slowly) through the graphic novel Watchmen.

What wonderfully written works are you reading?

Jump-start your writing: A photo in the newspaper

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Jump-start your writing: A photo in the newspaper

Rory C. Keel

The Local newspaper carried a story of the tragic work accident that resulted in the death of a young man. After reading the story, I decided to write about the photograph of the young man that was published. My hope is that you can see the picture through my words.

A picture is simply a snapshot of a brief moment in time. I get the feeling that at the very second the shutter of the camera snapped, this young man was happy.

A red and white striped shirt drew my attention to the center of the photo. A tall slender man stood with his arms folded covered with the long sleeves of a white undershirt. His head is tilted and resting on a wall above his right shoulder. He wore a slight grin on his face that exposed the shallow dimples in his cheeks as he stared back through the lens at the photographer.

The room he looks into is a kitchen, confirmed by the cast iron skillet and dishtowels that hang by a hook on the wall. Further evidence is the foil-covered dish and meringue pie near the end of the counter where he stood.

Behind his head, in another room hung a frame containing a picture. While out of focus, the outline of people reveals that it is a family photo. Beside the family picture hangs a smaller portrait of a young couple and below on a small table sits a picture of small boy with his arms crossed and covered by long white sleeve of an undershirt beneath a dark blue polo.

I wonder how many years have passed between the photo of the small boy and the young man he became?

Point of View: Omniscient

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Point of View: Omniscient

Natalie Bright

“The coffee-room had no other occupant, that forenoon, than the gentleman in brown. His breakfast-table was drawn before the fire, and as he sat, with its light shining on him, waiting for the meal, he sat so still, that he might have been sitting for his portrait.

… He wore an odd little sleek crisp flaxen wig, setting very close to his head: which wig, it is to be presumed, was made of hair, but which looked far more as though it were spun from filaments of silk or glass. His linen, though not of a fineness in accordance with his stockings, was as white as the tops of the waves that broke upon the neighboring beach, or the specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea.”
The exert above, from A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens, 1946) is an example of storytelling in an omniscient viewpoint.

I’m working on a story with alternating 3rd person and first person, but wondered if I should consider rewrites in omniscient. I need to review point of view to decide, so I’m sharing the information with you as I refresh my memory. Your suggestions and comments are always welcome.

Omniscient Defined

There is no identifiable character observing the scene above and relaying the information. Instead a narrator, who is not identified, tells the tale.

This is not to be confused with head-hopping, where the reader gets into the head of one character, to another, and then back to another. Normally, when the writer changes the viewpoint, or gets into another character’s head, there is a paragraph break or double-double space into a new scene. We’ll take a closer look at head-hopping in a future blog.

With omniscient viewpoint, the narrator conveys the scene without allowing characters to know what they shouldn’t. The narrator in the above example does not let us know the gentleman’s internal thoughts or feelings. We have no idea what he is thinking, however we might have a clue based on his actions.

Here’s another example from Dickens’ The Tale of Two Cities:

“”Good Day!” said Monsieur Defarge, looking down at the white head that bent low over the shoemaking. It was raised for a moment, and a very faint voice responded to the salutation, as if it were at a distance:

“Good day!”

“You are still hard at work, I see?”

After a long silence, the head was lifted for another moment, and the voice replied, “Yes—I am working.” This time, a pair of haggard eyes had looked at the questioner, before the face had dropped again.

The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful…”
As a reader, we are never told what the shoemaker is thinking, but obviously from his actions, he is weary and maybe a little aggravated at the interruption.

Have you writing in Omniscient view point? What difficulties have you encountered?

Thanks for following WordsmithSix!

New WordsmithSix Member – James Barrington

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james-darlene-f01_6324-twitter-profile-pic

The Saturday Morning Blogger

I am James Barrington, and honored to be the newest addition to the wordsmithsix family.

My wife, Darlene, and I were married in 1973. We have two grown daughters and six grandchildren. Half of them are here in Canyon and the rest are in New England.

With a master’s degree in public administration, I spent 30 years working in local government. Twenty-four of those years were as city manager in three different communities, in Texas, Florida and New Hampshire.

After moving back to Canyon in 2006, I have done photography and news reporting. I retired in 2015 in time to take on “Elder” responsibilities with University Church of Christ and make a trip to Israel in November of that year.

Since then I have been busy with visiting the sick and shut-ins of the church.

Having written five unpublished novels since 1991, I decided to start writing again, as time permitted. With the help of Harry Haines, I’ve begun studying the craft, seeking to improve my fiction writing. Needless you say, I have done a lot of writing over the years in the form of legal documents and memos and letters to government officials. I have been interested in writing fiction since my high school days.

I enjoy writing, just for the sake of writing, but I am beginning to learn that there are “rules” for fiction that are far different from technical writing and journalism. Each style has a different purpose and different rules to help the writer accomplish that purpose.

I have personal Facebook and Twitter accounts: James S. Barrington and @oneJamesopinion respectively. My email account is james.barrington14@yahoo.com.

With an assignment to contribute the weekly Saturday blog at wordsmithsix.com, I expect I’ll be writing about a variety of subjects. I plan to open with a few thoughts about the novel I’m working on now, with some previews and some of the “before and after” versions I’m learning from my colleagues in our critique group. I’ll probably go off on a few tangents about some of the earlier works I’ve “completed.” I suspect I’ll do some serious editing of some of those works as I learn more of the craft of fiction writing. I personally think I had some good story ideas, but simply fell short on the craft of telling those stories as works of fiction.

Thanks for tuning in to my self-introduction. I always appreciate constructive criticism and ideas for future blogs.

Write the Story

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Outtakes 278

Write the Story

Cait Collins

 

You are leaving a restaurant one Sunday morning and spot an elderly lady sitting in a booth alone. She smiles and wishes you a good day as you pass. What would you do? Would you acknowledge her greeting and walk on by? Or maybe you ask for her ticket and pay it without the lady knowing of your kindness. Or do you walk by without acknowledging her greeting.

Who is the lady and how does she respond to your actions?

She is just as she appears to be. Our lady comes to the restaurant once a week and sits alone. Why? Maybe she doesn’t have friends or a family. She’s sitting in the booth just hoping someone will speak to her.

Maybe she’s like Hamilton Bedford Tipton, the wealthy philanthropist from the old The Millionaire television show who is looking for the worthy man. She’s hunts for a good man or woman to bring into her company. She wants to provide excellent employment to a good Samaritan.

Or perhaps Granny is a serial killer looking for her next victim. Snub her and she’ll make sure you’ve just enjoyed your last meal.

So do you greet her, treat her, or snub her? She’s Granny enjoying her Sunday breakfast, or a head hunter, or a killer. Which is it?

Now write the story. One more thing, her accomplice is out in the parking lot standing by an old pickup truck. The hood is up and the elderly gentleman is holding a set of jumper cables.

The Dog And the Leash

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POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

The Dog And the Leash

By Nandy Ekle

I took part in a survey recently—one question, intended to make you think introspectively: name one thing you wish you could bring back from your childhood. This question definitely did get my brain cells working.

I started thinking about what kind of child I was. And then a story bubbled which gave me my answer.

Once upon a time, a girl had a dog. This dog was very energetic and very powerful, and the girl had to learn to control it. She clipped a leash to its collar and they went for a walk. The dog wanted to run and play, and he wanted the girl to run and play with him. But he was big and strong and the girl usually ended up huddled in a corner with a skinned elbow or a tear in her jeans.

But she couldn’t get rid of the dog because he was her constant companion. He went everywhere she went. He slept next to her at night, got up and went to school with her in the morning, came home and ate dinner with her, took baths with her, and then went to bed with her every single night.

And every day she took him for a walk on the leash. She learned to tell him no, that she didn’t want to run. She pulled on the leash to slow him down when he went too fast. And she yanked the leash if he tried to run after a bird or a rabbit.

But she also gave him treats. She bought tasty things for him to chew on. She gave him his favorite snacks. She scratched him behind the ears and made sure he had plenty of healthy food and water.

One day she took her dog out for a walk. She took hold of his collar with one hand and held the leash in the other. She rubbed the metal clip of the leash on the metal loop of his collar, but she didn’t really attach them. Instead she hung the leash around her neck, held her arm out as if she actually was holding the leash, and they began their walk. And an incredible thing happened. Her dog walked as if he really was attached to the leash. He didn’t run away from her, or drag her, or jump around. He walked calmly by her side and obeyed her when she talked to him.

After a while she remembered how much fun it was when he was running and jumping, and she wanted him to do that again. So she pretended to take the leash off his collar, but he still stayed calmly by her side. It wasn’t until she began to run that the dog started running as well.

So, I’ve gone through all this to say, I’m the girl and my imagination is the dog. I’ve spent so much time and energy learning to control it, and now when I want it to run wild, it looks at me as if I still have it leashed. If I could bring one thing back from my childhood, it would be my wild and free imagination.

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

Same Song, Different Verse

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Outtakes 277

Same Song, Different Verse

By Cait Collins

 

I love to read, and the more I read the more I see how many ways there are to tell a story. Several years ago, I took a creative writing class taught by New York Times Best Selling Author, Jodi Thomas. I really enjoyed some of her writing assignments. For example, we were told to write a story about a shoe on the side of a highway. When the stories were read, we became aware of all the different themes and genres. One young man wrote about a guy trying to escape his girlfriend’s house before her husband got home. In his haste, he drops his cowboy boot. His story was so funny.

My serial killer mystery focused on the maniac’s calling card…the right shoe placed beside the open driver’s side door. Each car was parked along cliff road. The story was the basis for my first screenplay, Rhymes.

We are taught in writing classes and in writing manuals that there are a limited number of stories: man against nature, man against himself, man against man, and coming of age are among the themes. And yet book stores and libraries are full of books. So how do we manage to fill the shelves when there are so few stories? It is because we have unlimited imaginations and viewpoints. All it takes is applying our own twist or spin to the theme and we have a story. While I may see a mystery, my classmate saw comedy. Another found a memoir. And another wrote a romance. One story line…a shoe on the side of a road resulted in twenty different stories in different genres.

 

Amazing, isn’t it?

Jump Start Your Writing Challenge – A weather change

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Jump Start Your Writing Challenge – A weather change

Rory C. Keel

 

One day this week the temperature drops to minus two degrees and then rises to peak at seventy the next day, and the week ended with three inches of rain topped by two inches of snow. Now that’s a weather change!

Perhaps that’s the kind of change that prompted ol’ timers to use sayings like,

“Whether it’s cold or whether it’s hot; we shall have weather, whether or not!”

To tell you the truth, sometimes the best way to forecast the weather is to look outside and see what’s happening at the moment.

Did you have a weather change this week?

Congratulations, Joe and Hello, James!

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Congratulations, Joe and Hello, James!

Natalie Bright

It’s an extra special celebration to kick off the New Year because we are adding a new member, James Barrington. James will introduce himself and tell you more about his work in a later blog. This week I wanted to share some wonderful news about one of our members, Joe Nichols.

Joe and I are neighbors. We live about eight miles from town past the pavement down a bumpy, caliche road. A mutual friend noticed we had similar addresses, and I was thrilled to find out he was interested in writing. He joined our group many years ago to write a book; an idea that he’d been thinking about most of his adult life. He came to that first meeting knowing nothing about plotting or sentence structure, but I remember how determined he was to learn. The story he wanted to write wouldn’t leave him alone. As a former rodeo bronc rider, his story-telling is raw and authentic. He has also been developing ideas for freelance articles. We are so excited that Western Horseman magazine has published BRUTUS’ NEW JOB. It’s about a bucking bronc who decided he didin’t want to buck anymore and gets a second chance at life in the rodeo arena and on the ranch. You can read Joe’s article in the February 2017 edition of Western Horsemen Magazine. Congratulations, Joe!

WordsmithSix writers critique group has been meeting together since 2009. We’ve said goodbye to a few members and gained a few. We have cranked out words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters which have been discussed, cussed, submitted, published and rejected. Writing is some of the hardest work you’ll ever decide to tackle in your life. Seeing your words in print is one of the most rewarding things ever. When one of my critique mates has good news to share, I’m just as excited as if it were my own work. Every little success just propels the rest of us to work harder.

Thanks for following WordsmithSix as we navigate the world of writing and publishing. Have you set your goals for 2017?

Writing onward…