Lucky 7 Meme, 11 Questions — A Day of Weirdness

Tags

art, blogging, creativity, friends, reading, sillyness, writing

Hello my fine friends, there is mischief in the air. It seems some of my fellow blog mates have been up to no good. Alright, let the weirdness begin. I have been tagged by a couple of my fellow bloggers and have been asked to play along with the Lucky Seven Meme. So, as per instructions I will be doing the following:
These are the rules:
1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.

4. Tag 7 authors, and let them know.

Well I won’t be sharing anything from the current WIP as it lives in Scrivener land and has no page numbers. But I did apply the rules to the old version of this same book and here are seven lines, as currently formatted:

“But someone will. There’s going to be more rumors thrown around.,” Cora said. “It’s the weekend, a notoriously slow news day. So it’ll be easy to fill the air with the most sensational crap they can find. I have to warn you, it’s going to get a lot worse.”

Frances threw down her magazine, “Great, more phone calls? Reporters at our door?”

Not much to “write home” about and I need to work on my dialogue, but from this snippet are you at all interested in what is going on? I’ll pose that question to the next set of victims:

Indy Quillen
Gene Lempp
SJ Driscoll
Lena Corazon
Kara Flathouse
Lisa Hall-Wilson
Emma Burcart

But that’s not all, I was also tagged in the Eleven Questions Game which is even more diabolical. The person I call “the fabulous one” Fabio Bueno tagged me in the Eleven Questions Game. Here are the rules:

1.    You must post the rules. 
2.    Answer the questions on your blog. Create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
3.    Tag eleven people and link to them.
4.    Let them know you’ve tagged them.

The questions were kinda fun, here are my goofball answers:

1.    What is your favorite historical period and why?
I’d have to say my favorite historical period would be England in the Edwardian age, only if I got to live at Downton Abbey and wear all those great gowns.
2.    List your top five favorite movies.
“Silence of the Lambs” “The Lives of Others” “Jaws” “Mary Poppins” “French Kiss”

3.    Your house is on fire. Your loved ones–humans and pets–are already safe outside. They have your driver’s license and a flash drive with all your backups (files and all the media you own). You have time to save one more object. What would you get?
My framed wedding photo.

4. You can invite any three people in the world for a dinner–anyone alive. Who are your guests?
Bill Moyers, Rachel Maddow, and Sting

5.    Congress/the gods/smiling extraterrestrials said you can only have one type of food every meal for the rest of your life (they’ll supplement your diet with vitamin pills). Which food would you choose?   Twix Bars

6. In an episode of “Friends”, they all reveal their freebie list: five celebrities with whom they can hook up without upsetting their partners. Who’s in yours?   George Clooney, Thomas Gibson, Hugh Jackman, Hugh Laurie, and RuPaul.

7. (Huge spoiler alert.) Some people think the Hunger Games is bloody. In Harry Potter 6, fifteen characters die. In HP7, the body count is over fifty . JK is rewriting the series, and she let you choose one character from any of the seven books to get a reprieve. Who would it be and why?  I’d like to see Dumbledore live and get his gay freak on!

8. What’s your worst fear?  Being left all alone.

9. You can choose your own nickname, with an assurance that no one would ever mock you. Tell us your choice.  I will always be: Hellafunkadella

10. What’s the best vacation you have ever had? Has to be the solo trip to Paris 1992.

11.Congress/the gods/smiling extraterrestrials said you must move to any fantasy or sci-fi setting (books, movies, videogames, rpgs) of your choice—permanently. Where would you go?    I’m going to Disneyland, bitches!

Whew! Now here are my questions for the next set:

1. What is your favorite cruciferous vegetable?
2. At what age did you realize Santa Claus, might not be real?
3. Where is the worst place you have ever made whoopee?
4. What is your favorite rodent?
5. List your five favorite letters of the alphabet
6. If you could be a Spice Girl, which one would you be?
7. If you were a super hero, what is your super hero name and your special power?
8. What is your Drag Queen name? Take the name of your  first pet, and the name of the first street you lived on.
9. Boxers or Briefs?
10. You’ve just made an embarrassing fast dash into an elevator car, after you make it and the door closes, you are panting and out of breath, you look up and there is your favorite celebrity of all time: what do you say?
11. What is your favorite Halloween costume of all time?

My next 11 tagees are:

Myndi Shafer
Karen McFarland
Serena Dracis
Ingrid Shaffenburg
Jillian Dodd
Sheila Seabrook
Susie Landau
Lynette M. Burrows
Pat O’Dea Rosen
Sharon K. Owen
Diane Capri

Okay kids, I hope you had fun, what do you think of all this taging and questioning madness? Do you like it, would you like to see more? Let me know, I do love hearing from all of you. Have a great day!!

Astrology for Writers — It’s All About Aries!

Tags

Aries, art, astrology, characters, creativity, fire, writing

Key Phrase is "I Am"

Spring has sprung, and on this the first, second, or third day of spring is a perfect time to continue our look at Astrology for Writers. At first I wanted to begin with the basics of charts and zodiacs and the symbols for all the planets, but I realized it’s a lot to throw out all at once. So I thought we’d begin with the signs and work our way from there.

So, first off — Happy New Year! Yes, for astrologers, and for those in the western hemisphere who follow the old calendars, the vernal equinox marks the beginning of the New Year. Old Man Winter is well on his way out, and the Darling Buds of May are on their way in. There is new birth all around, from new green shoots on the trees, to the spring lambs, and the sun has moved into the constellation of Aries. This is a good time to remind you that’s where all the “signs” in astrology come from. Back in the day, the big theatre was up in the sky. Star gazing was about all you could do at night time, so the night sky became the big “screen” so to speak where ancient story tellers, sitting around camp fires extolling the exploits of gods and goddesses, and re-telling the myths of the day could then point up to the sky and say “look, kiddies, there’s Aries looking down at us now.” The constellation Aries shows a series of stars depicting a ram lying on the ground with his head to the right. Here’s what it looks like:

Aries the Ram as seen in the sky

The sign Aries, looks like the horns of a Ram, and “Aries” is latin for “ram” but then we get into the whole Greek/Roman smack down, as Aries is the Greek god of war. Who came first? The constellation, the ram, the god? Who knows? Actually a bunch of people do know and here is a great article from Wikipedia, if you want the nitty gritty. But in the end they agreed that Aries is the constellation and the sign we’ll be talking about.

Now as for the sign and what it “means” we get to talk about how most people first encounter astrology. They read it in a newspaper column, or a magazine that all use a bunch of key words like head-strong, energetic, innovative, pioneering, original, aggressive, enthusiastic, self-assured. These characteristics derive from what the astrologers saw in their daily lives during this time. Children born under the sign of Aries displayed a lot of these behaviors. The world around them, as new plants were growing, new energy expressing itself, lead the astrologers to classify Aries as on of the Fire signs. And this is the glyph or symbol for Aries:

Sort looks like Ram horns don't it?

The elements are also classified in terms of degrees, they are called Cardinal, Fixed, or Mutable. Aries is a Cardinal Fire sign. What does Cardinal mean? The word comes from the French “cardo” not to be mixed up with “cardio” which is what you should be doing every day to fire up your heart healthy, but I digress. Hmm, starting a new spring workout schedule? Aries can help fire that up. Because “cardo” means a hinge, on which something turns. In this case, the New Year, hinges on the vernal equinox.

Am I getting too technical? Let’s just say that Cardinal signs are the first, the premiere, the initiator of things. Add that to fire and it melds perfectly with the story we are told of the Greek god Aries. He was the god of war, how much more fiery and impulsive can you get? According to his mythology, he was the only son of Zeus and Hera, although Zeus was famous for his liaisons with other women. Aries ruled war and was said to delight in conflict. He fooled around with Aphrodite, the goddess of love and their son was named Eros (yes, where we get the word, erotic).

Now, how to put this in perspective for writers? When you are looking at your characters, do any of them express a fiery, impulsive attitude? Do they jump first and ask questions later? Have you thought of assigning this character other fiery associations? Does he or she smoke? Does your story hinge on their actions? Do they create messes that other characters have to clean up later?

When we create characters we want to give them as much depth as we can, to make them three dimensional, and along with their positive characteristics, we should examine their negative side. One of the hard parts of being a leader, and the first one to start something, is often Aries “natives” don’t finish what they start. How would that kind of action affect your other characters? I bet they are complaining already.

The premiere fire sign, the one who starts it all

Just for fun, here are some famous Aries people that you may have heard of. Sarah Jessica Parker, Reese Witherspoon, Jackie Chan, Eddie Murphy, Alec Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Robert Downey, Jr., Russell Crowe, Quentin Tarantino, Celine Dione, Diana Ross, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Billy Holliday, Rosie O’Donnell, Conan O’Brien, and David Letterman. They managed to harness that Aries fire and it made them all famous in their own rights. I for one wouldn’t want to be in a room with all that energy, but you know the fireworks would certainly be a great show to watch.

Okay, all my Aries peeps, does any of this make sense to you? Hmm? And friends from other signs, have you had to deal with the messes our Aries friends leave in their wake? I do, my mother is an Aries and you’ve already heard me go on about her. I’d love to hear from you, and your favorite Aries characters.

From Reader to Writer: The Driving Metaphor

Tags

art, driving, fast cars, Inspiration, journeys, writing

I do believe I have mentioned that I love reading “How To” books on writing. I have three shelves full of books with authors ranging from Chris Vogler and James Scott Bell, to Donald Maass and Robert J. Ray. But, in all of these wonderful works, I have yet to come across a discussion about the process we all undergo, the transition from being avid readers to burgeoning writers.

Now, I must tell you, I went from reading to dissecting and discussing stories in school, and fell in love with the works of Joseph Campbell and the whole process of comparative literature. How I frolicked when it came to the close reading classic books, how I got so caught up in analyzing and dissecting the characters to understand their emotions and how their stories evolved.

So when it came time for me to begin writing fiction, I would never even think of “pantsing” just sitting down and writing what came to me, I would always have to arm myself with charts and diagrams, plot points and progressions before I felt comfortable creating my stories. That’s me in a nutshell: I could never just do anything, I would always have to think it out first (Drives my mom crazy as she is a classic “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of woman). To be honest, I am a control freak and all of this planning is done because I am so scared to death of falling flat on my ass and screwing up. It’s taken me years to realize that is our screw-ups that make us stronger.

Thus, I’ve had to think about this whole process of what on earth possessed me to think I could write fiction. It stems from a love of reading, a love of getting lost in a good book, a desire to park my own crappy life at the door and experience the wonders of a good story well told. I know what happened for me, I read a lousy detective story and said, “Hey, if this junk got published, I know I could do this better.”

And so the journey begins. I set out to write fiction and found myself in the driver’s seat of my new work. Learning to write is a lot like learning to drive. There’s an engine in there somewhere, you’re initial spark that fires it, but then there are all these pedals and knobs like plot, character, point of view. You got this car started, but it isn’t really going anywhere.

Okay, tell me again, gear in clutch out? What?

So, you read some writing books and find out you need plot points, an inciting incident, you need the Hero’s Journey, you need structure. You go back to the book and you realize you had hints of all of this, and your so excited because now your engine is revving and the car is moving, you have a road map to follow, oh boy, now you are going somewhere!

But then you look around and you realize, “oh what kind of car am I driving anyway?” and discover there are lots of models to choose from, and here’s where you think about your genre. Are you writing a nice cozy mystery? Then your car could be fitted out like a classic Rolls Royce, with real leather and fine wood finishes. Or, are you writing a Thriller, your car becomes a Ferrari Testarrosa that speeds you down the road, the wind in your hair the story zooming along. Ah, you say to yourself, now we are getting somewhere.

Okay, I've crossed the threshold into act two...NOW WHAT?

Now, you’ve picked out your model, you’ve filled the tank with gas, the mirrors are clean, the spark plugs are firing. But wait a minute. What’s that? Before you even get in the car, you look in the backseat and lo and behold. There’s someone there. Who is it? It’s your reader.

Ah, the circle of life is complete. It’s fine and good to have a road map, to have a set of plot points for you to follow. But does your reader care about that? No, they are looking forward to being taken on a journey and that is your job. Not to just make a set of plot twits and turns, but to create an emotional journey for your READER. You are now a chauffer, you are the taxi driver, you have precious cargo, your job is to think about the experience you are creating for the reader. Then it becomes more like,” oh, we’re just about to reach plot point one, where are we going to go next, I think I’ll turn down this lane, what will we encounter here?

You want to gain your reader’s trust, they want to know that you know what you are doing so they can just relax and enjoy the ride. If you do it right, they could care less about looking at the road signs, they are lost in the literary landscape of your invention. They are falling in love with your characters and feeling all the emotions you are putting them through. They are on the battlefield as you march out your troops; they are smelling the gunpowder and ducking when they hear the whistle of the bomb launched over their heads. Or they are right there in the room, bearing witness as two wonderful people come together for that first momentous kiss.

I mean isn’t that what you signed up for? To have a front row seat when your characters first show up in your consciousness? When you get to figure out “oh, that’s why they had to kill him.” As writers we are the lucky ducks who get first glance, the first taste of the unfolding drama. And that drama becomes so much more vital; when we realize that it is not just for us that we do this. We do this in service to our readers; we enter into a sacred bond, just as all the writers who came before you did with you.

Come on baby, let's ride!

That’s how we write it forward, that’s how we pay homage to our literary heroes, how we thank them for the service they rendered for us, we render it on for our own readers. So, there’s nothing else left to say, but “ladies and gentlemen, START YOUR ENGINES!”

Now here are some posts from some fellow travelers, amazing writers who look at the process from very different points of view. First off, the delicious Gene Lempp, our archeology expert, who tells us more about the Zoo Arcane.

Karen McFarland offers an amazing message of what we can learn when we are stuck in the mud.

The inimitable Kristen Lamb talks about what it takes to be a writer in the digital age.

Here’s one strictly out of left field, August McLaughlin, embracing the cycle of creativity.

Jenny Hensen’s great article on using the 12 steps of Intimacy to add conflict to your work.

And Sally Driscol’s remembrance of theater outings past.

Thank you all for stopping by, I love hearing from you. When did you make the move from reader to writer? What do you remember most about the transition? Does my driving metaphor take you places? (sorry, couldn’t help that last one.)