Swim Against the Grain

Blog Reboot

2010-04-06T13:33:00.000-04:00

My Dear Readers,

I have decided to reboot "Swim Against the Grain." New location, new name, new look. In other words, it's a new-and-improved version of this blog, only now I'll have my trusty sidekick iggi. Or am I iggi's sidekick...? No one will ever know.

As graduation from my MFA program creeps closer to the present, I have come to realize that this blog needs more structure, more focus, more direction. The new blog will feature regular weekly columns including book reviews, tips and news, a weekly writing challenge and more.

Thank you to all my readers for following my adventures and misadventures thus far. "Swim Against the Grain" will continue to exist on the web, but starting today I will be posting exclusively at the new location. Please join me at the new site: iggi & gabi.

Best,
Gabi

Ordinary Genius

2010-04-05T14:54:00.003-04:00

All writers should read this book, regardless of whether they like poetry. For a long time I hated poetry, but now I have come to realize that it's not poetry that bothers me, per se, it's bad poetry. This book is the reason I have fallen back in love with poetry... or at least with the good kind.

This book has given me the courage to try writing a little poetry of my own. OK, so most of the time, the poems morph into prose, but that's beside the point. What this book has done is open my eyes to the gracefulness of language, the beauty of gesture. I have fallen in love with language all over again.

iggi says....

iggi

2010-04-04T11:35:00.001-04:00

iggi stands for inner gabi gone insane.

She's the part of me who comes up with all the stories and makes me write them, often at imaginary-gunpoint. Whenever my mouth gets me into trouble, it's usually because iggi's out of control. She's the one who decides "today I don't want to write a serious post, I want to write a story about vicious bunnies." iggi doesn't *do* serious. Funny and silly... definitely. Even loopy sometimes. But not serious.

iggi is a curious creature, one of many moods and temperaments. Since her writerly inspiration is often tied to her moods, I've come up with a handy-dandy guide. The iggi-meter at right will let you know which iggi is around today.

Happy Foolery

2010-04-01T09:33:00.000-04:00

April 1, 1992. Vail, Colorado.
My brother, sister and I were stuck in ski-school for the day with an instructor who was a total dope. He had no interest in teaching us anything and instead, brought his girlfriend along on the lesson so she could cut to the front of the lift lines with the class. Even worse, his girlfriend was one of those snow-bunnies who had no clue how to ski so our class had to wait at the lift while our skiing Casanova helped her up when she fell and guided her to the bottom of the run.

At lunch, we lost our patience. Even though the snow bunny had decided to call it a day and go home, we were still frustrated at having lost a whole morning of good skiing. So we decided to pull a prank. While our love-lorn Romeo went into the lodge to get a table, we grabbed his skis and poles and buried them in a snow bank. When he came out after lunch he went ballistic.

His precious skis! How could someone steal his amazing-top-of-the-line-super-expensive skis? He was even on the brink of calling the police to report them stolen. Worse yet, since the lodge where we had lunch was at the top of the mountain, how was he going to get back down? And his boss was seriously going to kill him for not finishing our lesson either.

In the end, we caved and gave him back his skis. We may have lost another half hour on the slopes while he threw the hissy-fit over his skis, but it was so totally worth it. At the very least, I don't think he ever brought his snow-bunny girlfriend on a lesson again.

In honor of April Fools, I'd like to know... what's the funniest/silliest/SO-most-worth-it prank you've ever pulled?

And in honor of it being the first day of the month: Rabbit rabbit!

A Bunny's Tail

2010-03-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

From the minute I woke up today, life has been...

All I wanted to do was go back to...

Next, I tried camouflage...

I even tried getting some help from my friends...

But now it looks like I'm going to have to face this day head-on. Think you can take me, you stupid Day? Yeah, you and what army?

You don't want to mess with this bunny.

Trust me.

So, dear reader, you were wondering how my day is going?

God of Carnage

2010-03-23T21:40:00.001-04:00

Tonight, I saw God of Carnage, the Tony Award-winning Broadway production. The cast featured Janet McTeer, Jeff Daniels, Dylan Baker and Lucy Liu and was fantastic.

The play opens and already, the audience wants to know: how long until these characters lose it? Everyone seems so civil at first, except not. And then at a pivotal moment (courtesy of Ms. Liu's character Annette) and after that all bets are off.

This play is a great example of plot structure at work. The first section is restrained, though we know it's only a matter of time before these characters snap. Then there's the second section, when the civility quickly unravels. Finally, we get the last segment, where everyone--the characters and even the audience--is gasping for air, like kid retreating after a playground brawl.

One of the other elements I much enjoyed was how the writer (Yasmina Reza) doesn't feel the need to explain every detail. Annette's perpetual nausea, Michael's refusal to let Veronica have a drink. The story could have been heavy-handed and explained all these moments, but Reza holds back, and I think the play is stronger for it.

Overall, a great night out and a fabulous performance.

Beware the Ides of March

2010-03-15T10:15:00.040-04:00

Caesar: [To the Soothsayer] The ides of March are come.

Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar, but not gone.
--Shakespeare (Julius Caesar III.i)

Some may find the Ides of March depressing. A death-day of sorts. I, however, find this day empowering, as a day when I can bite my thumb at all the naysayers to my writing life.

I try not to complain about writing or publishing, because generally, there isn't much to complain about. In Portuguese, there's a saying that roughly translates to: "If you run because you enjoy it, don't complain about being sore." Writing is sort of the same thing. If you feel the need to complain about it, then really you should ask yourself: why are you writing in the first place? If it's such a pain in your backside, why not take up something you like better? Like basket-weaving or ceramics.

Even the most upbeat and optimistic of writers, though, find themselves up against a wet blanket or worrywart once in a while. These are the people who pester you with irrelevant questions like: "When do you think you'll actually 'make it' as a writer" or "So, do you think your book could be the next Harry Potter" or, my favorite, "Why don't you stop this silliness and get yourself a real job."

Well, once a year, we writers get a special day when we can turn to these people and say:

E tu Brute?

Today is that day. Enjoy it while you can because it only comes around once a year.

And to those writers out there who get soaked by wet blankets and just shake the water off, like a dog does after a bath: keep doing exactly what you're doing. Write on!

Happy Pi Day

2010-03-14T10:48:00.001-04:00

Pi Day is today!

This is the day when we celebrate that most beautiful of ratios, called Pi (AKA 3.141592...etc).

So tell your friends. Celebrate all things circular. And while you're at it, eat some pie.

p.s. Mark your calendars for five years from now because that will be Super Pi Day! Woot!

One Dot a Day

2010-03-13T14:06:00.001-05:00

...keeps the insanity away. But what if you can't get through that dot?

What if it's not really a dot, but a huge swamp of despair that seeps off the page and into your writing space and swallows up your floor, your furniture and everything around you? What if that swamp turns into an enormous black hole, a vortex of nothingness that eats up life as you know it until all that's left is you and a blank screen.

That's when it's time to smack some sense into myself.

Seriously, it's just one stupid dot, one tiny splotch of ink on the page that is my outline. It's just a dot. I can write a dot. That's, like, the size of punctuation. It's no biggie. Maybe I can't write a whole book today, but I can write a dot. I'll even throw in some words for good measure. And it doesn't even have to be a good dot at that. Just a dot.

Julia Cameron wrote in her book Supplies that when you run into a wall in your creativity, don't try going up over it. Instead, do what those characters in prison-break movies do: they make a hole under the wall and wriggle their way under.

So that's what I'm going to do. Just one tiny dot, and it can be a lousy dot while I'm at it. And maybe, just maybe, when I've written a handful of lousy dots, I'll have the beginnings of a real project.

Not a Jolly Holiday

2010-03-10T10:23:00.073-05:00

This past weekend I read the original Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers and it seriously pains me to put the following words to page (or screen, as it may be). This book may have been charming in 1934 when it was published, but it has not aged well.

First, it probably didn't help that I've seen the movie version a gazillion times and I was constantly comparing book Mary Poppins to Julie Andrews' Mary Poppins. While Mary Poppins in the movie is stern but kind, whimsical but sensible, Mary Poppins in the book is vain, mean and self-centered.

Second, the use of magic in the book seems somewhat backwards to me. In the movie, while she's sometimes reluctant to use magic, Mary Poppins makes wonderful things happen. The magic is a way for Mary Poppins to relate with the children: Jane and Michael. In the book on the other hand, she happens to have this magical thing about her but she constantly denies that anything magical has happened. Rather than the magic bringing Mary Poppins closer to the children, she uses it as a way to push the children away. Magic is supposed to be what makes Mary Poppins such a wonderful nanny, but book Mary Poppins seems reluctant to share her magical world with Jane and Michael.

Die-hard fans of the book may argue in favor of the book's superiority to the movie because it includes so many scenes and elements that the movie omits. A few examples:

Only the two oldest Banks children appear in the movie. The book also includes two toddler twins: John and Barbara.
Mary and the children go shopping and meet Maia, one of the Pleiades.
Mary has a birthday party in the Zoo with the animals. The children attend.
Mary takes the children around the world using a magic compass.
The children and Mary go to Miss Corry's shop to buy gingerbread square.

There's a reason the musical omits these elements: they're not exactly as charming in execution as they sound from the descriptions. My biggest disappointment with the book: the character of Bert (who's not a chimney sweep but a match man) only appears in one adventure at the very beginning of the story, and all he seems to be able to say is "Golly!"

In the end, I'm sorry to say that it would take a lot more than a spoonful of sugar to make this medicine go down.

This is Why I Love my Quill-Wielding Friends

2010-03-09T21:34:00.000-05:00

I won't get into the details, but today I needed some tough love with my writing. Really. I was being a complete moron but was too stubborn to hear what I needed to hear.

Thankfully, I know a few writers who aren't afraid to talk some sense into me, no matter how much I hate to listen. It takes courage to talk someone down when they're approaching a writing precipice. But these are courageous folks and to them I'm so grateful.

Daily Quota

2010-03-09T18:27:00.003-05:00

I'm not one of those writers who gets up every morning at 5am and writes exactly 2,000 words before starting her day. For me, writing is either feast or famine. I'll spend a week mulling over a project, then sit and crank out 30 pages in two days.

What I'm realizing, though, is that if I don't figure out a way to keep myself accountable, as soon as school is done and I have no more deadlines, I'm at risk for losing all writing discipline. This is why I've decided that I need to implement a daily quota regimen.

Here's how it's going to work: I write one dot per day. By this I mean, I write one scene (or group of small scenes) each day. No word quota but I'm shooting for at least 1K. The rules are as follows:

Writing anything that's not my book is a bonus and won't count towards the quota.
Outlines, character sketches, doodling, brainstorming, etc. don't count either.
I get one day off per week. If I make it through a week without needing a day off I get double kudos.

Ready... Set...

Monkeys on my Shoulder

2010-03-08T17:10:00.000-05:00

I have a bit of a dilemma.

Here I am, writing away at my thesis and I've got these two monkeys on my shoulders. (Why monkeys? Check out the Infinite Monkey Theorem. It will make sense, really.) One monkey goes by the name Prudence, the other Maverick. They don't agree on anything, especially as regards my thesis.

Prue: Write something safe. Write something easy. Write something where you know you'll succeed.

Mav: Safe-schmafe. Write whatever makes you happy.

Prue: This isn't like workshop. You have to hand it in For Real and your graduation depends on it.

Mav: Who cares if what you hand in isn't great. The important thing is that you learn something, right?

This argument continues ad infinitum. The main point of contention always comes back to the issue of my POV characters. Prue thinks I should choose one protagonist and write just that side of my story--at least then I'll finish something. Mav says that the dual POV is more interesting, not to mention more fun.

The thing that really gets me, though, is that a lot of my readers (including my adviser) seem to be more in agreement with Prue and I'm siding with Mav. Which brings me to my dilemma:

If a writer decides not to follow a critique or piece of advice, is that hubris on the writer's part, or is that the writer being true to her vision?

On one hand, I don't want to be that writer. You know the one--that's the writer who makes everyone read her stuff and give critiques, then completely ignores everything they say. Or worse, it's the writer who makes a point of defending his work against every critique point the group makes. All I know is, I've been on the "group" side of this equation and it stinks. Not to mention that the folks advising me to take the safe road may be totally right. They might see something I just can't see and I'd be committing thesis suicide if I don't listen. (This last part is Prue whispering in my ear.)

On the other hand. In my heart, I know I have a plan for this little book. It's taken until this weekend for this plan to fully crystallize , but it has, and it now means writing the story according to my "artistic vision." (Besides, as Mav puts it, this way's much more exciting.) But it might also mean that I careen off the road altogether and end up in a ravine.

So, my question is: Can anyone explain what the difference is between ego and artistic vision when rejecting a critique? This is really important because I need to know which one I have.

Also, does anyone have any monkey repellent?

Getting Over It

2010-02-26T22:34:00.000-05:00

I'll begin this post by saying that I'm not one of those people who "gets" poetry. It comes down to this: most poetry just intimidates the beesneezes out of me. For starters, you have to keep track of all those poetic devices and rules: rhythm, rhyme, form... the overall musicality of the words. Then there are all those little things to consider: character, voice, metaphor, imagery. And you only get a handful of words to accomplish all this and pull it off in such a way that doesn't stink.

Then there's the additional problem of how poetry often intersects with pretension. Sure, not all poetry is hoity-toity, intellectual-with-a-capital-I, but it's a lot easier to sound smart when you analyze poetry than it is, say, when you discuss sci-fi YA thriller. With poetry you can use fancy terms like "post-modern" or "onomatopoeia" and be embraced by other verse lovers. Try doing a post-modern analysis of a picture book and you'll get a lot of eye-rolls. In short, poetry lets you get away with acting literary.

This reminds me of the poetry unit we did in high school. My English teacher--a brilliant woman who made my college professors look like wimps by comparison--relied on Socratic method so if she called on you, you'd better have something smart to say or you were toast. If our analysis of the assigned text was not up to snuff, she'd pace around the room shaking her head and muttering "pearls to swine... pearls to swine..." And every time she was about to say something truly ingenious and life-changing, she would rap her bony knuckles on the blackboard and say "Ladies. Pearls of wisdom are spewing from my lips. Write them down!"

Which brings me to the point of this post: lately, I've also become oddly obsessed with poetry. I've been reading it compulsively (which I never did before) and even--dare I say it?--trying my hand at it a little. I know that nothing good will come of this clandestine love affair with language, but I keep at it all the same. It's kind of like watching a scary movie... I know it's going to make me scream, but I can't bring myself to switch the channel.

I'm sure you're wondering what has made me reconsider my aversion to verse. That's easy. It was this poem: Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins.

I'm not going to beat poems with stick until they bleed meaning and metaphor. While I'm at it, I'll stop taking poetry and literature and myself SO seriously. I'm going to have a little fun.

Book as Experience--Week 3: Space, Part 2

2010-02-02T13:34:00.009-05:00

Today's Topic: Space (Part 2: Perspective)

In design, there are two basic approaches to representing an object in three dimensions: isometric perspective and vanishing point perspective. While objects appear "3D" regardless of which perspective we use, there is one key difference between the two approaches.

In isometric perspective, size remains constant regardless of how near or far away an object is. This type of perspective is especially useful in drafting, where measurements and distances must be precise. Below is an example of a cube shown in isometric perspective. Notice that while our eyes recognize it as a cube (all sides are equal in size=the definition of a cube), the three-dimensionality looks a little "off."

In vanishing point perspective, on the other hand, objects appear smaller if they are farther away. Look at the cube in vanishing point perspective below. Notice how the sides of the cube appear to be different sizes, the closer they are to the vanishing points, yet our eye still reads the cube as a cube (i.e. we perceive all the sides to be equal size). In fact, this perspective appears more "real" to us than does the isometric perspective, where sizes remain constant.

How does this concept translate to writing? Three words: Point of View (POV).

Writers talk a lot about POV. There are tons of fancy labels you can memorize: first-person peripheral, third-person limited, omniscient, objective... the list is endless. Books on writing dedicate entire chapters to defining and understanding all these categories.

Thing is, when we get hung up on 1st-person versus 3rd-person, omniscient versus limited, it's like we're looking at the world of our story in isometric perspective. Sure, it looks 3D but there's something rigid about that doesn't feel quite right. This is where Narrative Distance comes in.

Narrative Distance (or Psychic Distance, as John Gardner called it in The Art of Fiction) is "the distance the reader feels between himself and the events in the story." Gardener uses the following examples of third-person narrations with varying levels of distance.

It was winter of the year 1853. A large man stepped out of a doorway.
Henry J. Warburton had never much cared for snowstorms.
Henry hated snowstorms.
God, how he hated these damn snowstorms.

Narrative distance is the lens that allows the author to zoom in or out of the story. Of course, drastic changes in narrative distance can feel jarring to the reader (think back to our Tension = ~~Expectations~~ Theorem). But there is some wiggle room within point of view, and it's our job as writers to understand it and make it work for us.

Zoom Lens Exercise (inspired by an exercise from Now Write! Ed. by Sherry Ellis): Select a short section of narration from your current project (2-3 paragraphs should do the trick). Now rewrite it three times, keeping it always in third person. The first time, zoom in so close, you can practically see your protagonist's pores and skin cells. The second time, zoom out and give us a bird's-eye view of the protagonist and her world. Finally, choose a middle ground between these two extremes.

[Note: if you want to make it really challenging for yourself, try doing this in 1st person. I would advise against trying this exercise in 2nd person, unless you feel like giving yourself a migraine.]

Questions to Consider:

What kind of information does the reader have access to when you're in birds-eye-view mode? What about in pores-and-skin-cells mode?
Which of the three variations in narrative distance did you find most challenging? Which came easiest?
Who's telling the story in each of the 3 versions? Who's the audience? Do either of these things change as narrative distance changes? Why or why not?

Let's add one last wrinkle to this whole mess. Up until now, we've been talking about how we, as authors, portray the events in our stories and pull the reader into the story. There is, however, one more layer we're forgetting: the POV character. The information that the readers get from the story is not only affected by the narrative distance, but also by the characters themselves. If a character is narrating the story, the reader will only get information that the character reveals (regardless of the psychic distance). In this way, the reader's understanding of the story is shaped not only by how the author manipulates narrative distance but also by the characters' intentions.

Axiom #3: If POV is the telescope through which we view a story, narrative distance is the lens that pulls the image into focus.

Funny Valentine--A Contest!

2010-02-01T22:12:00.001-05:00

I'm in the mood for a contest.

Maybe it's because I've been hit with a case of the sillies, or maybe it's because I've always found Valentine's Day to be the lamest, stupidest, most idiotic holiday ever invented, or maybe it's because deep-down, I secretly want someone to send me a valentine after all...

Regardless of the reason, I've decided today is the day to start my first contest and the category is: Funny Valentine!

Who gets to play? You, that's who.
What do you have to do? Write a silly valentine from one fictional character to another. Originally, I was going to limit it to children's book characters but now I've decided to leave it open. Go wild, go crazy. TV characters, movie characters, comic book characters... they're all fair game. The only "rule" is that the characters must be fictional.
When is all this craziness going down? Between now and Valentine's Day (submissions close at 11:59pm EST on Feb 14th). I'll select the winner using the very scientific method of pulling a name out of a hat
Where do you send your valentine? Post it as a comment to this post, so we all can read it and have some giggles.
Why? Now there's the rub. Maybe it's because you too have been feeling a wee bit silly lately. Or perhaps you agree that Valentine's day is the lamest, stupidest, most idiotic holiday ever invented. Or maybe you're in the mood to send a silly valentine. Oh, wait... you mean prizes... Alas, there won't be fame and there won't be fortune, but I can promise some good ol'-fashioned fun. And you'll be crowned Grand Poobah of Funny Valentines.

Ready? Get set...

GO!

Book as Experience--Week 2: Space, Part 1

2010-01-26T13:36:00.008-05:00

Every so often I wake up in the morning with math on the brain. Today was one of those days so I decided to start my post with a theorem.

Gabi's Tension-Expectation Theorem: Tension = ~~Expectations~~

When we write, we establish patterns for the reader. These patterns--if repeated enough times--will raise the reader's expectations. When we raise expectations but then turn around and give the reader something she wasn't expecting, we create tension.

And Here's a Corollary: There are no accidents in writing. If you're going to create tension, do it with intent.

This Theorem will come up again and again as we look at "Book as Experience." The writing techniques we will discuss are all tools we can use to raise the reader's expectations, and break these expectations if we so choose.

Which brings us to our first technique...

Today's Topic: Space (Part 1: Positive and Negative Space)

In design, we talk about positive space and negative space. These are not value judgments; positive space does not mean space that it is "good" and negative space does not mean "bad" space. Rather, positive and negative space refer to the space occupied by an object versus the space around the object.

Positive Space: This is the space occupied by the object.

Negative Space: The space around an object. Note that by looking at the space around the object, you can gain information about the object itself.

A great example of positive and negative space at play, of course, is the faces/vase picture (shown below). Do you see two white silhouettes on a black background or a black vase in front of a white background? It all depends on which object is the positive space and which is negative space. Notice also that it is virtually impossible to see both as positive space at the same time. In order to see the vase, you have to let the faces disappear into the background, and to see the faces, the vase must become negative space.

At this point, you're probably thinking: "Thanks for the design lesson, Gabi, but can we get to the writing now?" Here's the thing: whenever we write a story, we have to take positive and negative space into account. Think of the positive space as the space occupied by the story; this means the negative space encompasses all the other "stuff" that never makes it into the story proper. As writers, we need to be ever conscious about the interplay between positive and negative "story space," making active decisions as to what we will include and what we will leave out.

Axiom #2: Negative space can tell you as much about your story as does positive space.

Rosencrantz-&-Guildenstern-Are-Dead Exercise: (A study in positive and negative space)Select a minor character from your story. It doesn't matter which character it is, as long as it is not the POV character. Follow this character "off stage" and write a short scene (2-3 pages). The idea here is to examine the negative space around your story with an eye to better understanding the story itself.

As for the Theorem from the beginning of this post, when we write a piece, we establish rules for the reader regarding the positive and negative space of the story. If, however, we flip the positive and negative space, this creates tension for the reader. If we pull this swap artfully, we can create conflict and increase the reader's interest, but if we are not careful this type of switch can confuse the reader and be disastrous to our story.

The key is to understand how positive and negative space work and make them work for you.

He's Just Not that Into You

2010-01-24T12:07:00.003-05:00

I recently saw the movie He's Just Not that Into You, and it got me thinking about my writing. I know you're already wondering where I'm going with this, but trust me, there is a connection.

In the movie, the protagonist Gigi realizes that the reason guys weren't calling her back or asking her on a second date was not because of some bizarre male dating strategy she must decode. The ugly truth was: they just weren't all that into her. The movie's title, based on a line of dialogue from Sex in the City, becomes a mantra for Gigi as she makes her way through the ups and downs of dating.

So what does the mantra "He's just not that into you" have to do with writing? Well, oftentimes, I find myself getting obsessed about the craziness of writing... and eventually getting published. How is it that a story I wrote "on the fly" gets accepted for publication within 24 hours but another story I've polished for months keeps getting rejected. Conspiracy theories immediately pop up in my twisted mind. This is when I reread a passage from one of my favorite books on writing: Make Your Words Work by Gary Provost.

According to Provost, if you're not writing well enough to get published, then you are not qualified to judge the merit of your own work. "The writing's just not good enough" is the aspiring writer's version of "He's just not that into you." Sounds harsh, I know, but this concept is actually very liberating.

In Provost's own words:

"If I told you that your writing is fine, but that the peculiarities of editors and other machinations of the publishing world have conspired to leave you out, I would be telling you that there is no hope... But I'm telling you that constant rejection means you are not writing well enough yet, and that means you have control of the situation. You, not them. All you have to do is work harder and study more and keep an open mind about your writing. Be persistent, be humble, and be curious, and your writing dreams will come true."

In other words: the publishing world isn't out to get you, or me, or any of us writers. It's just that the writing's not all that good enough. Yet.

The only thing you have to do is make it better.

Ode to Nemo and Fifi

2010-01-20T13:15:00.004-05:00

There once was a striped orange kitty
Who fell for a poodle so pretty.
They cuddled and napped
Until one day he snapped
And he bit her without any pity.

Book as Experience--Week 1: Devices

2010-01-19T15:30:00.006-05:00

Today's Topic: Devices. Literary devices are perhaps one of the easiest ways to superimpose an experience on a book or story. Using a non-traditional format (diary, play, screenplay, letters, journalism, etc.) the author can alter how the reader interacts with the story.

Exercise: Select a character, situation and prop at random (or using our handy-dandy booklet). Write a 1-2 page piece in a nontraditional format, using a literary device of your choice. Literary devices can include (but are not limited to) poetry, epistolary form (letters), journal/diary format, song lyrics, play or screenplay, an interview, etc.

Questions to Consider:

How does the author create a unique reading/listening experience for the reader/audience?
What is this experience?
How does the literary device play a role in creating this experience?
How does this piece redefine what it means to “read”?
Does the format of the piece force the reader/listener to adopt a particular role in relationship to the text? (Audience, voyeur, investigator, etc?) If so, what is this role?

Axiom #1: Stories are not just written or told, they are designed.

Book as Experience--Introduction

2010-01-19T15:23:00.003-05:00

First off, my apologies to my readers for my lack of posting these past few weeks. It's been a hectic two weeks and unfortunately the blog--along with my other writing projects--had to go on hold for a little while.

But now down to business. This week I began a mini-lecture series for my writing group. This lecture series sprung out of a term paper I wrote last semester on the idea of Book as Experience. I've designed several different mini-lessons, along with companion writing exercises that illustrate them. As my group meets weekly on Tuesdays, I will be posting my lesson notes on the blog after our meetings.

Today I kick off this sequence of posts. Check in every Tuesday for a new post and writing exercises.

New Year, New Decade, New Goals

2010-01-06T12:52:00.004-05:00

I'll admit it, I've been in denial about this whole New Year / New Decade thing. Resolutions freak me out. Sure, I may have all these great intentions but inevitably, I can't sustain the changes for long and I give up after a few weeks (or days). In recent years, I've given up on resolutions altogether. After all, if I'm just going to give up on them, might as well not do them in the first place and save myself from all that added guilt.

Then I read the latest post (Hello, New Year) by fellow writer and blogger, Ghenet, and it inspired me. So this year instead of making resolutions, I will set a few specific goals. Goals are good. I can do goals. They're specific. Compact. Manageable.

Goals for 2010:

Yarn Diet. Yes, it's that time of year when I need to stop acquiring more yarn than I can knit. Yarn diet works on one simple principle: before I'm allowed to get new yarn, I must complete a project of equal size and scope and either gift the item or find room for it in my closet. Easy right? Considering I have upwards of a dozen half-finished projects right now, I'm not sure "easy" is the right word.
Writing. The idea is to start by writing 500 words of something every day. Once this starts to feel easy, I'll gradually increase the number by 100 words until I've come to 2,000 per day (which is the actual goal).
Blogging. This blog needs a schedule. The idea of "blogging whenever I can" makes it too easy for me to procrastinate and leave the blogging for tomorrow. I need figure out a schedule and give myself deadlines so that my posting stops being so erratic.
Healthy Decisions. I'm resorting to self-bribery on this one. I know myself and I'm fully aware that eating right and exercising is not going to happen if I do it just for the sake of "being healthy." So from now on, every time I make a healthy decision (choose a healthy food option, go to the gym or running, walk instead of taking the subway, etc.) I can take one coin from my loose change and put it in my piggy bank. This bank is my yarn fund and it trumps the yarn diet.

Notice how nowhere in the above goals do I mention my thesis. Let's just say the thesis situation is a bit of a mess right now and I'd rather not think about it at the moment. I may have gotten over my New Year's denial, but I'm still very much in thesis denial.

But that's the point of these New Year's goals after all; I only need to worry about one thing at a time.

ORACLE (Part 3): Word Box

2009-12-16T12:30:00.004-05:00

Word Box: Cut slips of paper. Ten, twenty... a hundred even. Write one word on each slip of paper. Nouns and verbs work best, but adjectives are also OK. Put the word slips in a container of some sort (I use a small, plastic box shaped like a Chinese takeout container). Here are some exercises you can do with your word box.

Generic: Shake the box to mix the words around. Pull out three-five slips. Write a scene using each of those words.

Fibonacci Story: Pull 6 words. Write a story in 13 sentences according to the following rules.
First word you pull = 1st word of 1st sentence
Next word you pull = 1st word of 2nd sentence
Next word you pull = 2nd word of the 3rd sentence
Next word you pull = 3rd word of the 5th sentence
Next word you pull = 5th word of the 8th sentence
Last word you pull = 8th word of the 13th sentence
[Note: you can also do this exercise with a 13-line poem]

Taboo: Pull one word. Write a short scene in which the main character is unable to say that one word you just picked. Here's the catch: this character is in a situation where it's imperative he/she use this word. Example: The character is a look-out sitting in the ship's eagle's nest who, for some reason, can't say the word "pirate." He has just spotted the mast of a ship on the horizon, and it bears a pirate flag. You cannot use "pirate" anywhere in the scene.

These are just some ideas, but the possibilities with the word box are endless!

ORACLE (Part 2): Acrostic

2009-12-13T12:01:00.001-05:00

Since we're talking about character, here's another exercise the ORACLE gives me from time to time. Like most writers, I often assemble character bios at the beginning of a new project. Trouble is, these bios get long and clunky, making it hard for me to keep track of all those little character details. This exercise helps me focus my character bios into a short, portable format. Just follow these two easy steps.

Step 1: Write your character's name on an index card so that each letter appears on its own line.

Step 2: For each letter, write a word or short phrase that captures some essential characteristic of your character. It doesn't have to be a complete sentence or even a complete thought; the idea is that the phrase help you remember important elements about the character.

Example: Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland
(Since Lewis Carroll's humorous poetry first inspired me to do acrostics, I thought it appropriate to use one of his characters to illustrate this exercise.)

Cat without a grin / Grin without a cat
Hangs out in Wonderland
Eccentric
Species of the feline variety
His grin stays behind
Invisible at times
Reappears gradually, sometimes not completely
Exceedingly mad

Croquet with the Queen
According to him "we're all mad here..."
Talks in riddles

I like to write these acrostics on an index card or slip of paper and keep them in my writing notebook. That way, I can take them with me at all times and if I find myself jotting down notes or sketching a scene, I have these mini-bios along to jog my memory.

ORACLE (Part 1): Character Compass

2009-12-12T12:48:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned yesterday, the ORACLE is where I go when I need writing help. Since it's the season for giving and sharing and all that good stuff, I thought I'd pass along a few tricks from my ORACLE to my fellow writers out there. Enjoy!

Character Compass

I read once that there are four basic ways to show character: Appearance, Dialogue, Action and Thought. While it's possible to depict a character using only one of these elements, most scenes tend to rely on all four elements working in concert to convey the character. That's where the character compass comes in.

This graph lets you track how much of each element you're using to show your character. You put a dot on each line. The closer to the circle's edge you put the dot, the more heavily you're using that element. (Example: the graph on the left indicates a scene where there's a lot of dialogue and action, but not a lot of thought or descriptions of appearance.)

Once you've draw the dots, connect the lines and it gives you a visual picture of how that character is being depicted in that scene. Of course, it is not essential that the graph be perfectly balanced all the time. I prefer to use this compass as a diagnostic tool. I'll choose a character and map him or her over a series of scenes. Over the course of several scenes, these graphs will show me if one (or more) of the aforementioned elements is missing.

Happy Thoughts: ORACLE

2009-12-11T12:24:00.002-05:00

Today's Happy Thought is... the ORACLE.

Every so often, I have a day where writing gets downright hard. (OK, usually it's more like a stretch of days or weeks but that's neither here nor there.) These are the days I visit the ORACLE. This might sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but in reality the ORACLE is pretty low-tech.

The ORACLE (which stands for Outrageous Ridiculous Absurd Crazy Literary Exercises) is a wooden box where I keep my writing tools. When I'm feeling uninspired, I open the box and pull something out at random. Somehow, the ORACLE always knows what exercise or writing toy to give me. Or maybe it's my brain that manages to twist whatever the ORACLE supplies into something useful, not always an easy feat since the ORACLE has some pretty weird tricks up her sleeve. Regardless, after a visit to the ORACLE I always seem to find something worth writing.

Do you have an ORACLE?

Writing Groups

2009-12-10T13:12:00.005-05:00

The other day, I was chatting with a classmate on the subway and the topic of writing groups came up. As writers, people are always telling us "you need to get feedback on your work" but it's not always easy to find the right group. I myself have been working with my group, Quill & Coffee, for over two years and while I may not be an expert on all writer's groups, I can say things that have worked for us.

Rule #1: There are no rules. Our group is much more free-form than a class or workshop, governed solely by our mutual respect for each other as readers and writers. Of course, as things evolved over the years, we have added in some rules (we now have a page limit and a double-space rule) and have established something akin to a schedule. But we started with a clean slate and only one guideline: if something doesn't work for you... speak up. This style may not work for all groups, but it's worked for us.

Rule #2: Embrace your diversity as writers. Often, writers like to band together with other writers in their genre, writers who "get" what they're trying to say. I have found, though, that reading work in different genres and getting feedback from writers who may not be familiar with middle grade or teen fiction can be as valuable as getting critiques from fellow children's writers.

Rule #3: Take initiative. Our group works because different group members take initiative over different aspects of running the group. When we decided we needed to switch locations, one group member scouted out possible new places. Another writer always sends out "reminder" emails, letting the group know when the next meeting is, who's submitting, etc. My job in the group? I'm the resident supplier of writing exercises; I bring one to every meeting, in case we have time left over at the end.

As for finding the right group in the first place... that's the tricky part. Writing classes, conferences, or your local library are all good places to start. In the end, keep an open mind and give yourself a few meetings to get a sense of the group before you decide for sure if it's the right group for you. And, of course, if you can't find a group that suits your style, you can always start your own!

Happy Thoughts: December

2009-12-04T17:06:00.003-05:00

Happy thoughts for December:

Everywhere I look, there are sparkly decorations. The glitterier and kitschier the better.
Winter vacation is almost here and with it comes the end to the semester.
December 21st: the longest night of the year. Once I make it past that landmark, I know there will be a little more sunshine every day after that.
It's perfectly justifiable and non-tacky to listen to Xmas music in December.
I can break out my collection of hand-knit scarves/hats/mittens and not be totally overdressed.
Snow is coming any day now.
Skiing, sledding and snowball fights.
Wool socks.
Belgian Hot Chocolate at LPQ.
Last, but certainly not least: spending time with all the awesome people and fantastic felines in my life.

In Memoriam

2009-11-21T14:55:00.009-05:00

Today I said goodbye to my best little buddy, Goldie. Always with her ringed tail in a question mark, she chirped like a bird and enjoyed helping me with my writing. Here follows a short tribute to the sweetest feline that ever lived.

She liked camping and enjoyed the great outdoors... er, indoors.
She knew the value of a good belly rub.

She also knew that Civil Procedure textbooks are only good for one thing:
She was a curious critter, never afraid to trek into uncharted territory.

She died of an enlarged heart and never was a diagnosis so fitting. In six years, Goldie gave more love than most humans do in six lifetimes.

Princess Marigold
AKA "Goldie"
(June, 2003 - November, 2009)

Favorite First Lines

2009-11-05T17:43:00.004-05:00

Lately, I've been thinking about first lines. They are the gateway that bring the reader into the story. They're like opening credits to TV shows, setting the mood and letting us know what we're about to see as we start turning pages.

The following are a few of my personal favorites (in no particular order):

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a young man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.
"Where's Papa going with that ax?"
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
12th Day of September: I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.
My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.
There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.
It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.
The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.
The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east.
In the book of my memory, after the first pages, which are almost blank, there is a section headed Incipit vita nova. Beneath this heading I find the words which it is my intention to copy into this smaller book, or if not all, at least their meaning.

These opening lines come from very different books written by very different authors. One thing brings them all together in my mind: voice. Each of these opening sentences not only convey the voice of the character (or narrator) telling the story, but also captures the essence of the entire book that lies ahead.

What are your favorites and why?

(p.s. Bonus points to anyone who can guess the authors and books for the ones I listed above!)

Happy Thoughts: Halloween

2009-10-30T12:35:00.004-04:00

Top 10 reasons why Halloween is the best holiday of the year:

Costumes!!!
Carving pumpkins
Spooky stories
Candy corn, blow-pops, ring pops, fruit roll-ups and other yummy stuff
Roasted pumpkin seeds
Chocolate!
Trading candy so you don't end up with all the gross licorice-flavored junk
Making funny masks out of paper plates
Glitter
Tricks instead of Treats (or both!)

This year, I'm embracing my 80's self and dressing up as my favorite cartoon character from my childhood: Jem. Tomorrow, I will don my hot pink sequined shirt, black pleather mini and leg warmers; I will try to live up to the epithet: Truly Outrageous!

What are you dressing up as? Anyone going as a literary figure or favorite character from their kid years?

Happy Halloween everyone!

Eureka!

2009-10-22T18:05:00.003-04:00

While working my way through Homer and reading some additional critical sources, I just discovered something fascinating:

There is no Trojan Horse story in the Iliad. The Trojan Horse story is part of the Odyssey!

In fact, the only place where Homer ever mentions this story is in the Odyssey, when the bard in the Phaecian palace sings the story of how Troy fell (book 8, I believe). While I had read the Odyssey twice before I had yet to read the Iliad (yes, I know, I know... what kind of bibliophile am I if I haven't read the Iliad?) For this reason, I never really focused on the horse bit all that much; I just figured the Iliad must talk about it more since it focuses on the Trojan War and that the mention in the Odyssey was just a little Iliad reference Homer did for fun. There are so many other things going on in the Odyssey, that the horse moment is really minor.

But now, in this most recent read-through, the Trojan Horse segment caught my attention and I decided to do a little research. Turns out, the Iliad only takes place over a period of forty-some days, and ends with the death of Hector. From my knowledge of the Trojan War events via the Aeneid, I knew that Hector's death and the scene with his body being dragged around the city happened before the horse event. I did a little more research and voila! No Trojan Horse in the Iliad.

A note for those readers who haven't been following this saga from the beginning. The reason I'm so incredibly excited about this piece of literary trivia is that one of my writing projects refers to certain events in the Odyssey, including the famous horse. If the horse were an elaborate part of the Iliad, it would make things... complicated, to say the least. I'd have to do more research and reconfigure things a bit. I'm rather tired of research right now and this discovery made my day. Time for a happy dance!

On the Road

2009-10-20T23:07:00.004-04:00

This weekend I read Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I had tried reading this book before, and never got past the third chapter. This time around, I made it all the way through but only because I allowed my brain to check out every so often, when the story got tedious. This is one of those books that goes over better after a few drinks or if the TV is on in the background.

I think the thing that bothered me most is that the narrator, Sal, seemed rather one-dimensional and Dean, the protagonist being described from Sal's point of view, went from being crazy to being crazier. Not a character development that would make him particularly sympathetic. There were too many characters but not enough that I actually cared about. The idea of hitchhiking across America would be a great theme for a novel, but this one falls flat. Overall, I feel about this book the way I feel about J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, I can understand why someone would like it, but that someone is definitely not me.

Truman Capote once said of On the Road "That's not writing, that's typing." I must admit, I'm with Capote on this one.

Happy Thoughts: Amethyst

2009-10-16T17:30:00.010-04:00

I have decided to institute a regular "Happy Thoughts Friday" post. No work-related stuff, no serious business, just happy thoughts to welcome the weekend.

This week's happy thought is: Spiky Amethyst Rock Crystals

In other words, something that looks like this:

First of all, they're purple, and that alone makes them fabulous. Think about it, how many naturally-purple things are there in the world? Not many. There's tons of green and yellow and orange and red and blue, but purple seems to be horribly underrepresented. Off the top of my head I can think of: eggplants, grapes, irises (though they're more of an indigo color), violets, lavender, lilacs and some types of seashells that have purple coloring on the inside. Compare that to the prevalence of grass or sky or pumpkins or lemonade, and the world's purple quotient is rather low. Back in the olden days (and by "olden days" I mean sometime way back when people used to dye their own stuff), purple dye was always reserved for royalty because it was so rare and expensive to make. How's that for a snazzy color?

Back to the crystals. When I really want to tickle my brain, I head to the Natural History Museum's rocks and minerals exhibit. While I'm there, I skip all the boring stuff in the glass cases and stare at the crystals so gigantic you could almost camp out inside. They're big enough that the museum doesn't even bother to put them in a case or have an alarm or anything because if someone wanted to steal them, they would need a forklift. When planning a museum heist, it is not advised to try and steal something that would require a forklift, because they're big and clunky and hard to sneak in and out undetected. Just FYI.

Crazy life goal #37: Someday I will have a large amethyst rock crystal in my living room as furniture. Crazy life goal #38: Someday I will also have a living room large enough for it.

Why Do I Torture Myself?

2009-10-14T13:48:00.000-04:00

This morning I decided to go running. Again. After the mishaps of yesterday afternoon, this was perhaps not the wisest decision, but I did it anyway. My ankles screamed "Not this again!" My bad knee sobbed "Have mercy, please!" and my good knee just groaned and muttered four-letter words under its breath.

Ten laps on the track and a sore ankle later, I ask myself the obvious question: why do I do this?

In a word: Endorphins.

What can I say, I'm addicted to stuff and a day without some sort of exercise turns me stupid and lethargic. It makes my brain feel dull and I'm more likely to putter around and waste time. I've learned the hard way that the time I "gain" by forfeiting a workout is not nearly as useful as the productivity I get from those delicious little molecules. But there's another reason why I run. A secret reason. One that is remarkably simple but powerful nonetheless.

When I run, I can't think about the book.

On the elliptical machine, I pedal away and think about the book. On the rowing machine, with each tug at the "oar" I think about the book. On the subway, when I'm crammed between two people taller than me, I think about the book so I won't think about the body odor. In yoga class, when I'm trying to do "downward-facing dog" without falling on my face, that sneaky book creeps into my mind and before I know it, I'm twisting up plot threads instead of my arms and legs. Even when I'm sleeping, I seem to think about this book because when I wake up most mornings, my brain tingles from activity and I don't feel that restfulness you get from a night of thought-free sleep.

But when I run, it all melts away and the book disappears from my mind, like it never existed in the first place. All I can focus on is one more lap, one more step, one more breath. My brain stops racing and my legs take over the job, only instead of talking to me about theme and story arc, all they say is the occasional "ouch" or "oof" or "can we stop soon?"

And I reply: just one more lap. I'm not ready to give up my freedom just yet.

Greetings from the Planet Zorg

2009-10-12T22:09:00.004-04:00

Dodging meteors in the Zebadu Galaxy, the intrepid Galactic Gabi must face her newest set of challenges.

Sacrifice a short story recently completed to ten servants of the god Bogwan, hoping to appease the volcanic monster.
Combine 5,000 words in such a way to break the unspeakable code and free work-in-progress No. 2 from captivity in Bogwan's evil dungeon.
Remove draft 2 of work-in-progress No. 1 from inter-galactic quarantine.
Resuscitate work-in-progress No. 1 by installing two and a half bionic organs.
Circulate the pedestrian ring of terror for five galactic neplons.

That's all, kids! Don't forget to brush your teeth! Ka-pwing!

Anger Management

2009-10-11T19:15:00.004-04:00

Those who have known me for a long time, know that I have a fiery temper. In order to maintain the docile composure most of you see regularly, I have had to learn various ways for venting my frustrations in a constructive (or at least non-hazardous) manner. Here are a few things I have found that work:

Write the names of all the people who have made you mad on a piece of paper. Crumple it up. Now stomp on it. If you're really in the need for catharsis, light it on fire.
Pick up the offending object or person and throw it across the room. (Note: this only works if the object or person is smaller than you, or you're really strong. Also, it's best if you don't mind dents in your walls.)
Choose some really obnoxious music and play it really, really loud. My preferred method of musical venting is tweeny-pop. Dancing around like a lunatic is optional.
Go for a run and imagine that with every step, you're squashing all the things that make you angry.
Take one of your characters and write a scene with her in it. Make her suffer.

What about you? What do you do when you need to vent?

Card Games for Writers

2009-10-06T09:20:00.004-04:00

Maybe it's because I spent so many years surrounded by toys, but I love games. Especially card games because they're so portable. My favorite games ones always seem to have something to do with words or writing. Here are a few from my shelf.

Once Upon a Time by Atlas
This is one of those games where it doesn't matter who wins, it's the process of playing the game that counts. The goal is to tell a fairytale story using the cards in your hand while trying to steer the story toward the ending that you were dealt. Players can interrupt each other to take over the story. I especially like this game because it works for a large number of players.

Man Bites Dog by University Games
The idea is to come up with the silliest, craziest headlines possible using cards in your hand. The crazier the card, the more points it's worth, but the harder it is to use it in a headline. The winner is the player who gets to 500 points first. I haven't played this one in a while but I remember laughing a lot when I played it last.

Quiddler by SET Enterprises
This one is on my shelf but I haven't gotten around to figuring it out yet so I cannot give an accurate review. I can say, however, that the company that designed this game is the same company that created SET, which is my favorite card game of all time!

Mystery Rummy Case #3: Jekyll and Hyde by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
This is more a strategy game, rather than a word game, but it's based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella so I think of it as a writerly game. This is essentially rummy with a twist, where depending on whether it is Jekyll or Hyde who is "awake" you can only play certain cards. Playing it the regular way is fun, but the real challenge comes from trying to get a "shut-out" (where you play all-Jekylls or all-Hyde cards). I think this game may be out of print, which is unfortunate because it's one of my favorites.

What about you? What's your favorite writerly game?

Gone are the Days of Letter Writing

2009-10-05T12:03:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, I used to write letters. I think I even have some special stationary saved away somewhere. Getting the mail was always an event because the anticipation of receiving a letter was often as good as the letter itself.

Today I am reminded of letter writing through this blog: Letters of Note

These two letters are some of my favorites:
To a Top Scientist and All of this is nonsense

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

2009-10-04T11:31:00.003-04:00

It is not even noon and already today is an marvelous day. Let me count the ways:

It is October but the sky is clear and the sun is out. Also, it is warm enough for flip-flops.
My heart is at ease with school matters.
I finished Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman at five this morning and decided that today I will speak without contractions.
Despite waking at two and reading until five, I managed seven hours of sleep, which is a respectable amount. Would that I could sleep this much every day.
Morning tea is always a pleasant pastime, but morning tea with a friend is doubly lovely.
I have already written half of this week's literature paper and it is only Sunday. I might just finish early this week.

Books are Theme Parks

2009-09-30T11:58:00.010-04:00

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with theme parks. Not with going to the parks themselves, but finding out how they were put together. Most kids get excited about going to Disney World and doing all the rides. Forget the rides, my dream was taking that special tour of the underground tunnels and seeing how things worked behind the scenes. In graduate school, I got to take a backstage tour of the Mall of America as part of a design research conference. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

I recognize that there is an element of insanity to this obsession. Yes, I am that person who goes to Vegas not for the casinos or the shows, but so I can take photos of doorknobs and floor tiles. The thing that is so fascinating to me about these themed environments is that even though they are blatantly manicured and fake, there is a perverse beauty to it. It's the epitome of control and manipulation, wherein the designers construct an environment that will evoke a certain emotional response or a particular behavior from the audience. This has always made me wonder: how do they do that?

Some of it has to do with physical design of the place. Like, did you know that the bricks on Cinderella's castle are slightly smaller as you go higher up the towers? This creates an illusion of a vanishing point, which your brain interprets by thinking that the towers are taller than they actually are. Or the way casinos are built without clocks or natural light so that people are more likely to lose track of the time. Or how different theme parks handle crowd control--the most successful rides are always the ones where standing in line becomes part of the themed experience.

What does this have to do with books and writing, you may ask? Today, as I was reviewing Louis Sachar's Holes it suddenly hit me: books are theme parks. In the case of Holes, the structure of the story is literally all about holes. As we read, we have to dig/fill holes in the narrative with snippets of other stories--mostly flashbacks. It makes the reader become like one of the kids in the story. Holes is not a book; it's an experience.

But books aren't just about the words on the page. Though the words do have a lot to do with eliciting specific responses from the readers, the actual book as an object is also part of the experience. My copy of the Fagles translation of the Odyssey is all about the experience. It's a soft-cover book, but the paper is a cream color and it has a deckle edge. I pick up this book and it feels epic to me, before I've even opened it. These are minor design-related choices, but some books go even further to create the reading experience. Take Casts Off by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (AKA the Yarn Harlot). In this book, the actual graphic design of the pages helps transport readers to the land of knitting.

Of course, I realize that if I ever publish something, most of these design decisions will be out of my control. Even so, it is satisfying to think about all these possibilities. More importantly, I think it's important to focus on the aspects we can control and how we, as writers, can make reading more than just an activity. We can make it an adventure.

Sanctuary

2009-09-28T09:40:00.003-04:00

What makes a writing sanctuary? A place where you can feel safe to be creative? This was a question that nagged me for some time. For years, my workspace was a source of drama for me because I didn't have a desk or surface where I could perch my computer. It came down to a question of space and a difficult choice. I could either give up my drawing table and replace it with a desk, or do without the desk altogether. In the end, I decided to reclaim my drawing table and turn it into a writing sanctuary.

It started with a totem: a three inch statue of a pink alien, picking its nose with its tongue and made for me by a friend from design school. Then I added a beanie baby gorilla, a hand-knit cactus I found in a London flee market, and a rubber ducky. Soon after, there followed mardi gras beads which I hung from the lamp, a penguin mug to hold my pens, an rough-cut amethyst stone from a recent trip to Brazil, and a fabric flower lei I got at a tikki-themed bar. And this was only the beginning.

Over the past few years, I have continued to add mascots to my sanctuary and while some people might find the space too cluttered for work, for me it's just right. I've even taken to carrying around a few portable totems in my writing notebook (a slide frame with no picture, a postcard of a Tiffany stained glass window and paint chips). This way, no matter where I am, I can always have part of my sanctuary with me.

What about you? Do you have a special workplace sanctuary?

On the Nightstand

2009-09-26T18:20:00.013-04:00

People who know me well know I have a very small attention span. They also know that my reading tastes tend to fluctuate according to my moods. At any given time, I am usually in the middle of at least six or seven books, with several more in the queue. For this reason, it can sometimes take me several years to finish one book, while other books might take me only a few hours. It also means my nightstand is continually buried beneath a mountain of books.

Here's what's on the list right now:

Enslaved by Ducks by Bob Tarte
I've read the part about the belligerent bunny and the amorous parrot. While I haven't gotten to the ducks yet, this book is great for people like me, who are polygamous in their reading preferences. The beauty of this book is that since each chapter is fairly self-contained, I can pick it up after several months and still have a good idea of what's happened.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
I have been working my way through this book through sheer force of will. Don't get me wrong, I was a loyal fan of the wizarding universe for years. Then the books got so long and complicated that my poor pea-sized attention span was no longer able to manage it. I purchased this book the day it came out and I'm still only halfway through. Last time I picked it up, I could hardly remember what had happened in the first couple hundred pages (not to mention the previous six books) and I can't keep track of the trillion or so characters so I'm continually confused. But I refuse to be deterred and I will finish reading this book, if only so that I can have that sense of completeness of having read the entire series. If you talk to me about the Harry Potter books, don't worry about giving away spoilers... I've already skimmed through and read the ending. (This has been my habit since book 4... you know, when the books started getting seriously long. I am not a patient reader.)

Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz by Edward Burger and Michael Starbird
My freshman year in college, Prof. Burger gave the keynote address during orientation and he talked about 4th dimension and how to intersect a ring with a sphere. Right in the middle of his talk, 500 beach balls cascaded from the rafters of Chapin hall so he could illustrate his point. This was the first clue that math--real math, not that ridiculous arithmetic junk they teach in high school--is seriously cool. In the end, math became my way to decompress and unravel my brain from the labyrinth of literary reading. To this day, I read math books for fun, but I don't read them cover to cover. Instead, I pick a book up and read a section or chapter now and again. (My other favorite math/logic books are Raymond Smullyan's The Lady and The Tiger or What is the Name of this Book?)

Thirteen Detectives by G. K. Chesterton
A collection of detective stories, by the creator of the famous Father Brown. What I love about these stories is the language. It has a similar feel to the Sherlock Holmes stories, where characters say things like "elementary" or call each other "old chap."

Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose
Another book that I dip into every so often. I rarely read more than one chapter at a time and I often choose the chapter depending on what area of my writing I think needs the most work on a particular day.

Take Joy by Jane Yolen
This is my bedtime reading. I like to read a small section of this book before going to sleep so that I always remember that writing is a joy, not a chore.

Blockbusting for Writers Post 2: Taking Critique

2009-09-24T16:23:00.008-04:00

On Tuesday, I submitted my most recent piece to workshop. I have since been stricken by a series of migraines which I can only assume are the result of this trauma. Before I lose all perspective, I must remind myself of a few truths:

• I am not the work. Nor is the work my child. The critique isn't personal.

• By allowing other people to read and comment on my work, I am freeing myself from the burden of having to do it myself. In other words, by letting someone else do the critiquing, I'm putting my inner critic out of a job. The task of judging my work becomes someone else's problem, not mine.

• This is not the first piece I have written, nor is it the last I will ever write. There's more where that came from. When I worked in product design, people would ask me: "aren't you worry that someone might steal your ideas?" And to that I would reply: "um, they're just ideas... there's always going to be more of them."

• I need to redefine my goals. If I go into a critique with the idea that I'm going to hand in something perfect, then I'm bound to be disappointed. But if my goal is to learn something from the process, then no matter what, I win.

In the end, it all comes down to this. Would you rather receive a pat on the head or meet a worthy adversary?

I am all about the worth adversary.

It's a Brain Thing

2009-09-23T12:45:00.000-04:00

When I start to think about creativity and the arts, sooner or later it always seems to come down to the "left brain" vs. "right brain" question. You know the stereotypes. "Left brain people" are logical, good with numbers, and solve problems in a linear, scientific fashion. "Right brain people" are artistic, creative and approach problem by looking at the "big picture." There are even tests on the web that tell you which one you are. The dancer test is my favorite.

But where do writer's stand in all of this? On one hand, we're clearly "right brain people" because writing is a creative endeavor. Duh. Then why did the evolutionary powers-that-be decide to put the language centers of the brain in the left hemisphere?

Two words: Corpus Callosum.

This is that little trench of white matter between the brain hemispheres that connect them and let them talk to each other. Back in the days when lobotomies were considered perfectly reasonable methods of brain surgery, doctors used to sever the corpus callosum of patients who experienced seizures. Sure, it might have helped with the seizures, but it led to a host of other problems. So what's the point?

The point is this. Writing is not a "right brain" or "left brain" thing. It's a whole-brain activity. Unfortunately, most people are more comfortable living in either one hemisphere or the other and they end up missing out on all the things the other half of their brain has to offer.

For me, this means allowing myself to take a few risks. I'm terrified of the chaotic free-association of my right brain so when I write, I end up falling back on outlines and copious notes. This is all well and good, except I often spend more time organizing my project (and outlines and notes) than actually writing it. So with this new project, I've decided to embrace the chaos. No outlines allowed. I'm writing each scene as it comes to me, regardless of where it falls in the story arc, and I'll worry about putting it all together later on. To those of you who have to critique my work, I hope you don't mind the mess.

What about you? Are you a right-brain or left-brain writer?

Blockbusting for Writers Post 1: Not Writing a Novel

2009-09-22T10:00:00.010-04:00

I have recently gone back to a book I read in grad school called Conceptual Blockbusting by James L. Adams. This book, which discusses all sorts of mental blocks that get in the way of our creativity, was the required textbook for a creativity seminar I took my first year. At the time, I was far more interested in how creativity related to design and product development, but now that I am rereading the book, I find that the principles apply to writing as well.

Today, the topic that's on my mind is a perceptual block: the tendency to limit the scope of a problem. Adams uses the 9-dot problem as an example in his book.

9-Dot Problem
Using four straight lines, connect all nine dots.

What does this have to do with writing, you ask? Simple: it's our tendency to limit the problem too much that makes us unable to see the solution. In terms of writing, that might mean defining what the end-result will be before you've put anything down on paper. Like when you set out to write a memoir but really what comes out is a short story about a dragon and a princess. The Intern has a great post on this very topic: books that aren't really books.

As for me, I'm doing whatever I can to avoid limiting my current problem... er, project. At the moment I know this:

There is a character.
There are pieces of scenes involving this character written on index cards.
There is a secret.

The trick, of course, is figuring out how to make these pieces hang together enough so that I can hand in something for my writing workshop tonight.

Not on Speaking Terms with the Dictionary Right Now

2009-09-21T11:25:00.002-04:00

We had to read Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie for literature seminar this week and this line made me laugh out loud:

"After a time, he (Peter) fell asleep, and some unsteady fairies had to climb over him on their way home from an orgy."

I puzzled over this line for a while. Wasn't this supposed to be a children's book? If so, the whole drunken-oversexed-fairies thing didn't quite seem to fit. Part of me hoped that Barrie was doing an ahead-of-his-time Pixar-style reference. (You know, the way in Pixar movies, there are those jokes that are really there for the benefit of the parents rather than for the kids.) Even so, I didn't know quite what to make of this.

After a while, I felt compelled to look up "orgy" in the OED to see if it really meant what I thought it meant or if I was simply insane. N.B.: this whole impulse to consult the OED dates back to my high school days, when my 11th grade English teacher used to make us look up every word (except "and" and "the") in the OED when reading Shakespeare sonnets.

(Incidentally, I'm really glad I managed to find a few definitions online... can you imagine going into the NYPL and asking the librarian "Hi, I need help looking up 'orgy' in the Oxford English Dictionary. May I use your computer?" Um, embarrassing.)

Here's what I found: The word "orgy" comes from the Greek orgia which means "secret rites and revelry" (Compact OED) or "secret rites or ceremonies connected with the worship of certain deities... esp. Dionysus" (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Blah. How boring. Yes, the passage from Peter Pan now seems to make more sense for a children's book, but I'm still disappointed. I was rather amused about the prospect of drunken, oversexed fairies. That's why I'm not on speaking terms with the dictionary right now.

Pen and Notebook Twin

2009-09-20T09:53:00.003-04:00

The other day, I discovered that I have a pen-and-notebook twin. I was out to brunch with my sister and her best friend from elementary school and we were talking about books and literature. At one point, I suggested a book to my sis' friend so she dug through her purse and pulled out a notebook and pen. But it wasn't just any notebook and pen; it was a moleskine unlined notebook (the hardcover kind, size=medium) and a blue Pilot varsity fountain pen.

O.M.G.!

I nearly fainted. I mean, I've known this girl since she was six and I was ten and never did I realize we were pen-and-notebook twins! This was unbelievably exciting!

Instantly, we bonded over our twin-ness. Never before had I met someone who understood the intricacies of my notebook and pen situation. Like how you can't take fountain pens on an airplane because they explode, so you always have that dilemma: do you not write for a whole plan ride or do you take a ballpoint pen and have it not match the rest of the writing in your notebook? Or how when moleskine came out with their soft-cover blank books, I almost had a panic attack because I thought they might discontinue the hardcover kind, so I raced to the bookstore and stocked up... just in case. If I admitted any of this to most people, they would think I was crazy, but now I have a pen-and-notebook twin who understands! Woot!

Which brings me to my question of the day: what's your writing medium of choice and why?

Mine is a moleskine unlined notebook (hardcover, medium) and a blue Pilot varsity fountain pen (duh). Because when that fountain pen squishes across those creamy notebook pages, it makes me feel so 19th century.

The Coffee List

2009-09-18T11:10:00.005-04:00

Coffee List = (n.) a list of authors, living or not, whom I would like to take out for coffee just so I could have an excuse to listen to them talk.

(in no particular order)

• Lewis Carroll--he wrote two novels about math. Math rules. 'Nuff said.

• Norton Juster--he also wrote a novel involving math, so right away, he's racking up the coolness points. He also wins the prize for writing the most original inscription of any signed book I own.

• E. Lockhart--she is so goshdarn funny, and when she reads her work in public, she does the voices.

• M.T. Anderson--when I heard him speak on an author's panel, he used words like "ethos" and "postulate" to talk about teen literature. Coooool.

• Louis Sachar--anyone who can weave that many plot threads together and pull off what he did in Holes while still making it look easy... that takes serious talent... and guts.

• Gaius Valerius Catullus--he could make a poem about a cute little bird sound raunchy. Can any other poet do that without coming across like a perv? Think about it.

• Jane Austen--because even in a time when women weren't allowed to inherit land, she wrote strong-minded female protagonists and made them seem believable.

That's my list for now, though I will be adding to it as I think of more authors.

What's yours?

---Edit---

Duh, and how could I forget?

• Samuel Johnson--king of snark and literary bad@$ness, a man not intimidated by even the most insane of literary projects (he wrote a dictionary for crying out loud!). If you doubt me, look up the word "patron" in a copy of Johnson's dictionary. But I have one caveat: he'd better not bring Boswell.

Like in that Insurance Commercial

2009-09-17T12:03:00.007-04:00

You know that feeling when you read a book, and you're about three chapters into it and all you can think is "where is the author going with this?"

But then you have this sneaking suspicion that this author knows what she's doing--maybe because you've read previous books, or maybe because you want to give her the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't really matter why you keep reading. All that matters is that you're willing to trust the author and go along for the ride.

And you know that feeling you get when you reach the final chapters of that same book and the author managed to pull off what you thought was impossible and the ending totally delivers?

That was exactly how I felt when I read Carolyn Mackler's Tangled. Having read all of her previous books (in fact, I wrote a term paper on her books last fall) I was excited... but also slightly terrified... to read this book. This is a new approach for her, juggling four different point of view characters (two of them are boys!), and telling a story in short spurts rather than one long narrative that spans the entire novel.

I was worried about a lot of things. Like what if it wasn't really one story? What if it turned out to be four loosely-connected novellas? Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with novellas, but if I'm sitting down to read a novel, I have certain expectations. Like, I need an overarching narrative, however loose that narrative may be. And I want to see the characters grow and change throughout the book. How on earth was Mackler going to pull this off if she was jumping from one character to another and if each character's story takes place in a different time/place than the other stories?

When I read Jena's story, my apprehensions grew exponentially. Jena's character is an archetype we've seen in Mackler's work before (in particular, the protagonists in her first 3 books all have certain similarities to Jena). But the thing that always made Mackler's depiction of this archetype satisfying in her other books is that, in the end, the smart-but-not-very-popular girl who's insecure about her looks always seems to learn to accept herself as she is. It's a message of empowerment that I always looked forward to in Mackler's work. Needless to say, by the end of Jena's section of Tangled I was devastated. It felt like the message was: life sucks, and it keeps on sucking.

With each subsequent section of the book, I grew more relieved. At first, I was worried that we would be getting a "grass is always greener" moral and that the point of the book was just to show that even so-called popular kids have problems. But I should have known that Mackler wouldn't settle for an answer that easy. In the end, this book isn't just about seeing the other side of a situation or understanding how the other person feels. Really, this book is about reaching out to that other person. The structure of the book perplexed me at first. We see a lot of "before" and "after" moments with these characters, but we rarely see the actual change. Most of the time, the moment of transformation happens "offstage" between sections and are mentioned only in passing. Then it occurred to me that this book really isn't about change at all. The fact that these characters will change is a given, but what truly matters is how these characters help to transform one another.

This is an interesting departure for Mackler. While her previous books have mostly focused on one protagonist's path to self-discovery and acceptence, this book emphasizes the importance of connection with others. In the end, I had nothing to worry about, but in doing so, I became all the more invested in wanting to see how Mackler was going to pull this off. Suffice to say, she did so beautifully.

I should have known all along that I was in good hands.

Genius isn't Easy...

2009-09-08T11:22:00.007-04:00

Finally, a book that speaks to me!

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb is officially the funniest book I read this summer.

Of course, this humor is not for everyone. The more pragmatic among you might be thrown off by certain unrealistic details, like the poison blow-darts that make the victim succumb to incessant farting. Some of you might also not fully appreciate the narrator's voice. But then again, it's hard to appreciate genius in its own time. And those of you out there who like to sympathize with the parent/teacher/mentor figures are likely to be disappointed since in this book, all the adults are morons. Except maybe for the Motivator; he's not too bright, but he's a bad@$$ so that makes him cool.

If you read this book and you're not laughing out loud, it's probably just because you're not smart enough to see the beauty in the humor. Thankfully, most kids are smart enough to get this humor, so in the end, it doesn't really matter what you think.

Can I Please Just Write the Book?

2009-07-14T13:05:00.003-04:00

One of the things I loved about this Southampton conference is that it was a writing conference where we actually talked about writing. Yes, you heard me right. None of that "how to write a query letter" stuff or talks on "how to get published." We just talked about good, old-fashioned, sitting your backside in the chair and writing the book.

If I sound a bit snarky, that's because I'm so unbelievably sick and tired of being told all the how-to-get-published stuff when I haven't even finished my second draft.

Everyone seems to know how to get published, or at least have advice to offer. Sometimes we're lucky enough to speak to people who actually know what they're talking about. Thing is, these people usually have the good sense to know that advice is useless if you haven't written the book so they usually steer the conversation to more practical topics like how to reshape your third act. These people also know the scary truth: that if you get a hundred published writers in a room and ask them how they did it, you'll wind up with 100 totally different stories. There no one way to get published; every book is different, and so is every publishing experience.

Then there are the people who haven't got a clue. (My favorite are the complete strangers you meet at dinner parties. They ask you "what do you do?" and you say "I'm a writer" and they proceed to advise you how you should market your book even though the last book they read was "See Spot Run.") Sure, their intentions might be fine but often these conversations do more harm than good. After all, talking about doing something is a million times more interesting than actually doing it, which is why I think we have so many people who insist on giving advice on how to publish books but so few who actually get around to putting pen to page.

In an effort to re-focus my writing, I have devised a set of rules for myself.

I will work on my book every day.
I will not TALK about writing my book. I'll write it. Every time I feel the urge to talk or complain about writing, I will pull out a notebook and write a chapter.
I will NOT workshop my book. It's been workshopped to death and for me workshopping is a convenient way to avoid actually WORKING on it.
I will NOT talk about publishing or attend any how-to-get-published talks until I have a polished manuscript.

If you catch me breaking these rules, call me on it. Seriously. Smack me upside the head if you have to, but help me stay on track.

But not right now. Right now I'm going to go write that book.

Greetings from Southampton

2009-07-12T05:22:00.008-04:00

I am not a morning person, but there's something about books that has always seemed to motivate me enough to get up before sunrise. As I kid, I would sneak into the living room and read, then sneak back into bed before my parents came to wake me for school. And there's something about sitting down to work while the morning hours are still in the single digits that makes me feel especially productive. Today is no exception.

This morning I am writing from the Stony Brook campus in Southampton, where I have been attending the Southampton Children's Literature Conference. Some highlights:

*Norton Juster of Phantom Tollbooth fame spoke, then signed books. He wins the prize for writing the funniest inscription of any signed book I own.

*Daily Workshops with Tor Seidler, where I discovered that the novel I had set aside is, indeed, not hopeless.

*Marketing Talk by Emma Walton Hamilton, who wins the prize for talking about the publishing process and not scaring me half to death!

*Research Talk by Catherine Creedon, wherein I learned that Wikipedia is not the scourge of research resources, but a perfectly good research tool, if used properly.

and, of course...

*Julie Andrews, reading from the new anthology of poetry, which she compiled together with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. She talked about her father and how he memorized poems so that when he walked alone he would never be lonely. I was reminded of my seventh grade English teacher who insisted we memorize several passages from Shakespeare so that if we were ever stranded on a deserted isle, we could recite them and not be bored. Somehow, I have a feeling if I were stranded on a desert island, being bored would be the least of my problems. I like Julie Andrews' reasoning better and I the idea of keeping poems as good friends.

Speaking of friends, that was perhaps the best part of this conference. In just five days, I met many talented writers and fellow conference attendees who I am honored now to call my friends. As the conference comes to a close, I look forward to continuing these friendships and someday seeing all our names in print.

Back from Hiatus

2009-05-29T09:01:00.005-04:00

Wow, so it's been a while since I last posted, mostly because I've been feeling completely drained from writing, but also because there's a new procrastination tool in my house: my portfolio! That's right, I've finally gotten around to it and started putting together a jewelry portfolio for all of my designs. (It probably doesn't hurt that I just upgraded to the new version of Photoshop and it's suh-weet!)

Here's a taste of my portfolio:

This one's called "Under the Sea."

And this one I've named "Lemon Drop."

And for some reason when I designed this one, the first thing that came to mind was "Groovy, Baby" so that's what I decided to call it.

So, there you have it, a hint of what my portfolio will be like. I've got 17 finished presentation slides and another half dozen or so designs that are still in the rough stages. I think the hardest part will be selecting which designs to include in my book, since I'll have to narrow it down to about 15.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

2009-05-17T20:37:00.004-04:00

It's a... Literary Magazine!

That's right folks, today at "Get Your Read On" we officially introduced our new online literary magazine, Verbal Pyrotechnics, a magazine exclusively dedicated to showcasing teen literature.

There are tons of literary magazines out there, but almost all of them only print literature targeting adults. Sure, there are plenty of kid's magazines that print short fiction, poetry and non-fiction, but these magazines target the younger set. For teens, there are few venues that showcase short fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction. That's where VP comes in. Our goal is to give teen authors a market to publish this type of work so that the world of teen literature isn't restricted to novels. Sure, novels are great, but those other forms of writing are important too.

Here's a sketch of a possible logo for Verbal Pyrotechnics.

We will be sending out a call for submissions very soon so check back again. If you have any magazine-related questions, you can email me (the Editor-in-Chief) at editor(at)verbalpyrotechnics(dot)com.

24-ish Hours and Counting

2009-05-16T14:42:00.004-04:00

Pyro-crastination

2009-05-15T22:25:00.003-04:00

Today I spent a good chunk of my afternoon putting together a make-shift website for Verbal Pyrotechnics, a new literary e-zine for teen literature, of which I am an editor. Ultimately I envision the site being much more hi-tech than the crude mock-up I've put together, but I think it's important to get some portion of a site up so that we can start soliciting submissions. The site is not officially up yet--still need to work out a last few details--but considering I knew next to nothing about html, this afternoon was well-spent.

Here's a screen-shot of my mock-up of the main page.

Danse Macabre

2009-05-14T11:36:00.005-04:00

Sometimes different forms of art inspire each other. This painting, Danse Macabre, was inspired by an orchestral piece by that same name, composed by Camille Saint-Saens. The black and white swirly things are crocheted and knitted strips of yarn on a background of acrylic paint and glossy medium. The swirls are visual representations of different musical motifs in the piece.

Shaking Up My Brain Cells

2009-05-12T17:22:00.005-04:00

Sometimes a good puzzle is just what I need to break out of a creative rut. This one is one of my favorites and is a graph theory classic. It reminds me never to make obvious assumptions.

Question: How do you get across all the bridges, if you only cross each bridge only once?

Check? No Check?

2009-05-11T16:38:00.003-04:00

Cleaning out two whole book shelves and throwing out several dozen magazines... 3 and 1/2 hours

Finishing and mailing application to summer program... 1/2 hour

Finding a grant for Verbal Pyrotechnics...

...never ending.

OK, in all fairness, it was unreasonable of me to think I'd find a grant, write a proposal and be done with it all in one afternoon. One can always dream, though, right?

What's the Difference...

2009-05-09T16:18:00.005-04:00

...between a "statement of purpose" and a "statement of expectations"? I'm supposed to include both in an application to a summer program but I can't see how these two things are any different from each other. Am I hallucinating or are these not the exact same thing?

Get Your Read On!

2009-05-08T16:32:00.003-04:00

This is an event I'm helping to organize. I'll be doing my first public reading ever at this event!

The Great Writer

2009-05-08T15:29:00.002-04:00

I find this song hilarious. Unfortunately, the video quality is less than great, but you can get the idea.

The Great Writer

Rabbit Rabbit

2009-05-01T11:19:00.003-04:00

According to my second grade teacher, if you say "Rabbit Rabbit" first thing in the morning on the first day of the month, then good things will happen. And we all know that when your second grade teacher says something, you'd better scoop up those pearls of wisdom before they roll away. Because if teacher says it, it must be true.

So, raise your latte (or in my case, herbal tea) and let's toast the start of a great new month.

Rabbit Rabbit!

States of Mind

2009-04-30T15:00:00.010-04:00

I love art or music that tells a story. Perhaps this is because I love writing and storytelling, so in my mind all forms of art tell a story, you just have to uncover it.

This week I went to MOMA and searched for my three favorite paintings: States of Mind by Umberto Boccioni. They were not on view and my week has been slightly out of whack ever since. I felt discombobulated, sort of like when you go to Alice's Tea Cup and they're out of your favorite tea. Sure, you can always try another, but it's never quite the same.

Anyway, back to Boccioni. The reason I love these paintings so much is the way the individual images evoke specific emotions while the sequence creates a narrative. I find it especially interesting the order in which the paintings are presented. First you have the emotion of saying farewell. Then you accompany those who are leaving on their voyage, but in the last painting you come back and see the image of the ones they left behind. I could drone on for hours about these paintings, but instead I'll stop and let the art just speak for itself.

Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind I: The Farewells

Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind II: Those Who Go

Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind III: Those Who Stay

Submission Frustrations

2009-04-28T15:10:00.004-04:00

Back in February, I had set a goal for myself that I would submit one story per month, or send out a previously-submitted story to a slew of new magazines. This is all well and good. Except. In my search for magazines that might give my stories a good home, I discovered that there are very few magazines out there that cater to teens, and almost none of them literary.

The few magazines that exist are for young writers so you have to be under 18 or under 25 to submit. But what about all those great over-25 authors out there who write fantastic books for teens? If one of them wanted to submit a short story somewhere, they would have a hard time finding such a magazine.

This got me thinking... the world needs a literary magazine that caters only to teen literature. The short story form for teen readers is almost non-existent. The universe needs some venue to champion the work of short story writers who happen to write primarily for teens.

Something must be done.

Here Comes the Weird

2009-04-23T14:07:00.005-04:00

Remember Clue? You know... "I choose Prof. Plum in the Library with the Lead Pipe?" What if we took this idea and made this into a writing game?

Choose a character, a situation and a prop at random. Write a piece in which all three figure prominently (i.e. no fair mentioning one in passing; they must all be central to the story).

Today's challenge:

Character = Monk or Nun
Situation = Visiting a Psychic
Prop = Pet Monkey

I've decided to make mine into a silly poem.

Sister Clara went to see
A psychic named Mariah
To find out why the convent thought
That she was a pariah.

The psychic looked down at her cards
And in her crystal ball,
And tried her best to figure out
The meaning of it all.

But in the end, Mariah's news
Landed like a boulder.
The problem is," she said, "the monkey
Sitting on your shoulder."

Writer's Tool Box

2009-04-21T15:54:00.003-04:00

Here's a question for you:

Suppose you were going to put together a Writer's Tool Box--a box containing items that help spark your creativity or enrich your writing--what would you include? (5 objects - not counting notebook and pen... duh)

Here's my list:

My word box (a little box full of slips of papers with words on them)
My image file (a tin filled with images clipped from magazines) or stack of postcards
Kaleidoscope
Dice
Rubber Ducky

Ask me on another day and my list might be different.

Introducing the Three Troublemakers

2009-04-19T11:30:00.008-04:00

Today I was looking at old photos and I found some really hilarious ones of our kitties. So I thought, why not use today's blog to introduce said critters to the world? I know, I know... this is the equivalent of those annoying parents who carry around a zillion photos of their kids in their wallets and whip them out every chance they get. But these photos gave me a chuckle and made me smile, so I thought I'd share. Everyone needs a good smile now and again.

Somehow, Mel managed to squeeze inside a FreshDirect box that was still taped shut. Imagine my surprise when I went to open the box and found this pair of green glowing eyes looking right back at me.
This one is of Goldie, which is short for Princess Marigold but my husband can't bring himself to call her that. The tome that she's using for a pillow is my husband's Civil Procedure textbook. Clearly I'm not the only one that falls asleep at the sight of that book.
Here's a better one of Mel. Looks like someone wants to be a stowaway. They always start acting out when they see us bring out the suitcases.
And here's Lucy. This is not a particularly funny one--she's the most well-behaved of the three--but I didn't want to leave her out. She's a sweet, smart girl who has learned to sit, stay, beg for treats and "slap me five." The only thing that gets her into trouble is her stomach. When food's on the line, all bets are off.

So there you have it. Thank you for indulging my cat obsession and I promise in future posts I'll keep the kittiness to a minimum.

Yippee!

2009-04-17T18:18:00.002-04:00

Goal: 4000 words

Actual output: 4500

Whew! Now just have to proofread and send it out.

Inventory

2009-04-16T19:41:00.003-04:00

This past week I've been stricken with writer's drought. The worst part is that I have a deadline coming up in less than twenty-four hours and I'm still about 3000 words from where I want to be. Earlier today I thought things were completely hopeless, but I finally found something to shake me out of the barren wasteland. I call it Inventory and it's a tool I developed by combining exercises from various different books or teachers. The purpose of this exercise is to help you pinpoint what topic(s) motivate you and what your writing is about at its very core. Since this exercise was so useful for me today, I thought I'd post it here.

Inventory

Part A: Influences to Your Writing

List 5 favorite movies.
List 5 favorite books.
What's your favorite book from your childhood?
What's you're favorite fairytale?
List 5 favorite characters (from books, movies, TV, etc.)
Look at your answers for 1-5. What do they have in common?

Part B: Looking Within

List 3 topics you think about a lot / are passionate about.
List 3 topics you know a lot about.
List 3 topics you wish you knew more about.
Look at your answers for 7-9 and circle any topics that come up in your writing.
Looking at your writing as a whole, what does it all have in common?

Part C: Staying Focused

Look over all your answers to Parts A&B* and try to sum them up in one word. Write this word on a post-it and put it where you'll see it often. This can help you stay focused on what's really at the core of your writing.
*Note: a variant on this one is to look at your current writing project and try to sum it up in one word.

Part D: Moving Ahead

List 3 topics or ideas of things you would like to write about (or incorporate into your current writing).
List 3 reasons why you're resisting writing on one or more of these topics.
What's the first *small* step you can take towards breaking down this resistance? Do that step today.

Things to keep in mind:

You don't need to do all the parts every time, just the parts that are relevant to you in that moment.
You can do this exercise multiple times. You might find your answers are a little different each time. That's part of the fun.
Don't let yourself get bogged down answering these questions, just write what comes to mind first.

This Assignment is Going to Kill Me

2009-04-10T10:06:00.002-04:00

For our final project in my literature class, we're supposed to write a short story using some form of the vernacular. Since I don't feel like I can accurately convey a vernacular that is not part of my own cultural background--and since I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so either--I'm pretty much stuck with only one vernacular: Portuengles.

I've been doing a bunch of research, mostly talking to Portuguese-speakers who speak English as their second language, and I have managed to come up with a series of guidelines as to how this vernacular works. For example:

Words ending in consonants, often have an -ee sound at the end (Ex. Orangee Juicee)
Words ending in a -d sound end up sounding more like a -gee sound (Ex. Metro Cargee)
Words ending in a -t sound end up sounding more like a -chee sound (Ex. Bestchee Buy)

And the list goes on and on. Yesterday I tried writing in this vernacular, just for practice. I worked for two hours on one stupid paragraph, and even then it still stinks worse than yesterday's socks.

So it all comes down to this. It's either me or this assignment. One of us will remain standing at the end of this confrontation and right now it's still up for debate as to who it will be. All I know is this isn't just an assignment anymore. It's a matter of survival.

Classical Twitter

2009-04-06T17:27:00.005-04:00

I know very little about twitter but I still found this link hilarious. It seemed particularly relevant given the writing project I was working on last fall. Enjoy!

Let's Be Existential for Moment

2009-04-05T15:10:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I had a chance to see a preview performance of Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot, with Nathan Lane as Estragon, Bill Irwin as Vladimir, John Goodman as Pozzo and John Glover as Lucky. All in all, it was a great performance, albeit the execution was a bit on the literal side. For a contemporary revival of the minimalist classic, I had expected the production to take a few more liberties. But I'm quibbling about the miniscule. In total, the production was great and very true to the script. Perhaps the crowning moment was Lucky's famous "think," expertly performed by Glover.

But the issue of literal performance has stayed with me and has made me wonder: how much should plays or movies diverge from the original written text and still maintain the story's integrity? I felt that Godot might have taken more liberties, particularly in the direction of minimalism, given Becket's string of progressively more minimalist plays that came after Godot (Play and Rockabye come to mind.) It seemed that certain things like the costumes and set could have been even more simple, stark and bare than they were. I suppose, though, that this is the beauty of a Becket script in that each motion, each expression is carefully mapped out, leaving little room for such liberties. Even the most minimalist of his plays are still very detailed in the stage directions, allowing us the confidence of knowing that a script closely follows depicts Becket's original vision.

But what if that's not Becket's original intent at all? What if the subsequent plays challenge us to reinterpret the earlier ones and perhaps adapt them to a more minimal, stripped down vision? As a writer, this question is an important one because with every subsequent work we produce, we provide our readers with more context through which to view earlier works.

This brings up questions for me particularly as a writer who wants to write both for children and adults. If I have started my publishing career with short fiction targeting the literary market, what will happen when I move on to teen and pre-teen fiction? I suppose many writers also have this question relating to genres... if they start out in one genre, what will happen if they decide to switch?

I have no idea.

Tings Dey Happen

2009-04-02T08:51:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to see "Tings Dey Happen," a solo show by Dan Hoyle. What an incredible performance. Not only did Hoyle capture the speech patterns of dozens of different characters, but he made each character distinct in their mannerisms and even tones of voice. So much so that when Hoyle came back onstage for the Q&A, I was surprised at how "American" his English was.

The play centers around Hoyle's experience as a Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria and gives a us a unique view of that culture and its people. What makes this show especially successful in presenting a view of Nigerian culture is that Hoyle places the audience in his shoes. What I mean is, the characters speak to the audience as if we were the Dan Hoyle, Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria. This allows the audience to experience the culture the way Hoyle himself experienced it, and has a far more powerful effect than if he had simply narrated the story as himself.

While some critics may frown on Hoyle's appropriating the voices of such a diverse group of characters so different from himself, I find that claim to be ridiculous. It's called acting, folks; that's the whole point. What is more, Hoyle treated his characters with respect and we can tell from his performance that he has a real affection both for the culture itself and for some of the individuals he met during his travels. If anything, it's some of the American characters who come off looking more like humorous caricatures than the African ones.

After the performance, we had a chance to sit in on a Q&A session with Hoyle, where he talked about developing the show and his experiences in Nigeria. That was probably my favorite part of the evening because we got a look at his creative process in putting together this performance.

All in all, it was a Wednesday evening well-spent.

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

2009-03-27T12:35:00.003-04:00

Friends, Readers, Fellowfish,
Lend me your ears.
Actually, more like your eyes, but that's neither here nor there.
I digress.

Anyway, check out this link.

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

It just got posted today. I'll be sending out emails later to family and friends and basically everyone I know. At the moment, I'm too giddy to concentrate on that so for now, I'll just post it here.

Going Back to the Classics

2009-03-25T09:35:00.005-04:00

Sometimes it's good to go back to the classics. Here are two online libraries of classic children's stories.

byGosh.com Children's Classics

American Literature: Short Story Library for Children

Happy reading!

Falling Down the Stairs

2009-03-22T20:25:00.004-04:00

Have you ever fallen down a flight of stairs? A whole flight, I'm talking about, top to bottom, not just a couple of measly steps. That is one of those things that I've always wondered about the mechanics of, you know, for research purposes. What if I wanted to write about a character falling down the stairs? What would it feel like? Does she fall head over feet or slide down feet first? For obvious reasons, I wasn't about to conduct said research on purpose.

Well, today my questions were answered when I slipped off the top step of a flight of stairs and bounced all the way to the bottom, feet first, like I was riding a slide. What did it feel like? It hurt. Weird thing was, for the first thirty seconds I had no idea exactly what hurt. It was like my brain didn't register the damage. In the end, it worked out for the best. No broken bones, no concussion. If you ever plan to fall down the stairs, this is the way I would recommend doing it.

You're probably wondering "what is the point of this stairs thing?" Well, the point is this. In the moment I was awash with emotions: embarrassment (did anyone see?), anger (why do those steps have to be so slippery?) and frustration (why am I such a klutz?) Then one magic little word occurred to me.

Research.

Lousy things can happen in life. Sometimes you have crummy days or weeks. Sometimes you embarrass yourself so badly, you wish the ground would swallow you up. Sometimes bad things happen and just when you think it can't get worse, it does. But no matter what, it can always serve as research. Whatever happens, good or bad, it always has the potential to become a great story.

So if I ever have to write about a character falling down the stairs, now I know exactly what it's like.

Spring Cleaning

2009-03-21T16:52:00.004-04:00

Ah, first day of spring, and what a beauty of a day it has been. You know that giddy feeling that you get on the first warm, sunny day and it feels like you could do anything if you just set your mind to it? Well, I feel like that today.

Problem is, my springiness isn't channeled in the direction that I want, namely into my writing. Instead, it feels like the visual-spatial side of my brain is on overdrive, while the verbal and logical parts of my brain are still hibernating.

I have this design in my head for a really nifty beach bag, crocheted in cotton yarn. It has a handle that doubles as a drawstring and a false bottom so that it can fold in on itself for easy storage. Since I can't translate 3D shapes into flat drawings, the only way for me to record said design before I forget it is to make the darn thing. So that's my new spring project: to make this bag before the design evaporates from my brain.

That's the thing with spring. It gives me the itch to start new projects but not necessarily the motivation to see them through the end. So I've devised a rule: no new stuff until the old stuff is finished. No writing new short stories until I've finished a draft of the current one. No starting new knitting or crochet projects until I've finished at least one that's still pending. (I have to cut myself a little slack with that part of the rule because if I wait until all pending projects are done, I won't get to start something new for the next three years. Maybe longer.)

My hope is that this rule will force me to clean out the clutter of old projects and make room for the new. We shall see.

Computer Deprivation

2009-03-20T09:47:00.002-04:00

I'm sitting at my computer and I can't seem to get myself to write. It's not that I don't want to write, I do. I just don't know where to start. I have at least half a dozen books filled with writing exercises next to my desk, but nothing seems give me the jolt I need. I've got writing tools galore. My image file, filled with weird photos and drawings I've collected, oozes story ideas. My word box is full of fascinating words I've accumulated that beg to be used in a piece. And of course there are the countless writing games designed by yours truly that are supposed to spark creativity, not squash it.

I think I need a major kick in the backside. Something drastic. Something huge. Something so gigantic that I won't be able to not write. Today is the day I resort to my most extreme measure: computer deprivation.

That's right. For the next 12 hours, I will not use the computer for anything. No email. No internet. No word processor. Nothing. I will even do something I never do when I am home; I will turn off the computer.

Today I will channel the creative vibes from writers living in the days of yore. I will do it the old-fashioned way: with pen and paper. If I need to do research, I won't resort to the almighty Google and its sidekick Wikipedia, I will get my behind out of my chair and walk to the library.

So this is it. The time-stamp on this post marks the beginning of my 12-hour marathon sans-computer. Adieu virtual world, hello real world. Here goes...

An Ode to Scrivener

2009-03-19T09:45:00.001-04:00

O Scrivener, my Scrivener!
My computer friend,
You help me to write
From beginning to end.

Your millions of features
Spark my 'magination,
As well as my penchant
For procrastination.

I play with the cork-board
From morning 'til night
And almost forget that
I'm supposed to write.

And outliner, O what a
Wonderful tool
That helps me to come up
With stories for school.

From morning 'til night
I do nothing but fiddle
And sometimes I don't write
Not even a little.

So maybe, just maybe
A notebook is best,
And maybe I should give
My Scrivener a rest.

In all seriousness, though, Scrivener has changed the way I approach my writing, allowing me write my current novel out of order and still keep everything organized. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to linear writing. All I'm saying, though, is that Scrivener should've come with a warning label: Procrastinators Beware.

In Medias Res

2009-03-18T14:57:00.000-04:00

I've been staring at this blank post box for I don't know how long and I can't seem to think of the perfect way to start my blog. This being my first post, I suppose it should be grand and important and I should have pearls of wisdom to share with the world. Yeah right.

So instead of agonizing over the beginning, I'm going to do what I usually do in most of my writing: start in the middle. No introductions. None of that "I live in Antarctica and I measure people's toes for a living" nonsense. You're just going to have to figure all that out as you go along.

And so we begin.

Have you ever hung upside down and looked around you? It's amazing how different things look. The ceiling, which is usually the most boring part of a room, suddenly becomes the perfect roller rink. And there's so much space without all the clutter from the world below... or above, depending on how you're looking at it.

The other thing about hanging upside down is that it jiggles your thoughts around inside your head and you wind up thinking things you wouldn't have thought otherwise. That and it makes all the blood rush to your head so your brain works harder. There's a science to hanging upside down. I should know. I made it up.

When I was a kid, I used to do this all the time: in the playground, hanging over the back of a chair, lying in bed with my head over the edge. In more recent years, I have abandoned this habit and I don't think I've been the better for it. My thoughts need jiggling and my cerebrum needs brain food.

I think I'll go hang upside down for a while.