monday writing prompt!!

official monday prompt:

i'm a sucker for lyrics. maybe it's how they hit strung together with the music, but sometimes a certain song will just settle into me like home. i've never been to either carolina, but ryan adams makes me want to belong there:

"Oh My Sweet Carolina lyrics

I went down to Houston
And I stopped in San Antone
I passed up the station for the bus
I was trying to find me something
But I wasn't sure just what
Man I ended up with pockets full of dust
So I went on to Cleveland and I ended up insane
I bought a borrowed suit and learned to dance
I was spending money like the way it likes to rain

Man I ended up with pockets full of cane
Oh my sweet Carolina
What compels me to go
Oh my sweet disposition

May you one day carry me home
I ain't never been to Vegas but I gambled up my life
Building newsprint boats I race to sewer mains
Was trying to find me something but I wasn't sure just what

Funny how they say that some things never change
Oh my sweet Carolina
What compels me to go
Oh my sweet disposition

May you one day carry me home
Up here in the city feels like things are closing in
The sunsets just my light bulb burning out
I miss Kentucky and I miss my family

All the sweetest winds they blow across the south
Oh my sweet Carolina
What compels me to go
Oh my sweet disposition
May you one day carry me home

May you one day carry me home"

voice of an angel, that man. a foul-mouthed, pissy, egotistical angel.

here's a link, if you'd like to hear the song. a wonderful duet with emmylou harris, another singing angel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMZYRvDvgT4

so, a sense of place. we all try to set a scene, a tone, in our stories. how often do we try to place a setting so strong it becomes a character in its own right? how often do we try to create a sense of a place we've never been?

making real progress?

i woke up this morning, after several days of not sleeping so well (minor health issues), and my head was racing with ideas for my novel--i made notes, and some of them are meaty, add something important to the overall theme and foreshadowing to larger events. the cool thing is, that's never happened to me before. the waking up to automatic ideas. i wonder if maybe having this story in the back of my mind all the time is creating a subconscious flow. a trickle most of the time, but my brain's chewing on this project even when i'm not aware of it. that'd be super cool, because i've had trouble conceptualizing such a large story arc, and my brain helping rather than hindering may signal the turning point. maybe i'm beginning to wrap my head around this thing; and thank goodness. i only hope that once i finish this novel the next one moves faster, since i'll know how it all works together.

i'm curious--those of you who have finished your first novels, how did it go? what was progress like for you, and how long did it take?

everything you wanted to know about writing

but were afraid to ask. a friend recommended to me a book about writing:

The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing
by Meg Leder, Jack Heffron and the editors of Writer's Digest
ISBN#1582971595

i've started it, and lo, in the first chapter have discovered a plotting concept new to me: situation vs complication (pp. 14-16.)

we've all read that conflict is essential to good storytelling. we need something to get wrapped up in, something to keep the tension going. what's interesting about this 'situation vs complication' bit is that, while some writers take for granted what creates momentum in their story, figuring a character's divorce/alien abduction/demonic possession/etc. automatically does the trick, it's actually a bit more involved than that.

we need a situation with potential for this magical conflict, and we also need for our character(s) to be personally invested in the outcome--and we need to build and support that connection.

situation: josie finds herself instantaneously transported onto the bridge of the SS Flargleblastroid spacecruiser.

complication: while we might assume josie would be disturbed by this development, we can't be sure unless josie has a vested interest in not being there, or wants to be there but disagrees with the space captain's mission to vaporize all of Earth's puppies, or thinks the captain's tentacles are very sexy, and he's just not that into her. all of these wrinkles create conflict, but it doesn't become a bona-fide complication until josie is compelled to stay and resolve the situation. if she can walk away without sacrificing something meaningful, the tension isn't there--an easy answer stares us in the face while josie thrashes about. plot credibility is ruined.

seems obvious, i know. but how many books have you read that didn't create this developed a level of commitment in its characters to their situation? sadly, i've read a few that i found on the bookstore shelves. each new tidbit i pick up helps me not to make mistakes like this, and encourages me to keep working away. excellent! i only wish those writers whose books i read had learned about this stuff, too.

feeling a bit bunged up, are we?

anyone who knows me knows i've been batting like a kitten at my first novel for the past two years--egads--determined but lost as a skink at a marmoset sleepover. at least, that's what i tell myself.

"O, but if i only knew how to work this novelling magic!! If only, i would achieve GENIUS!!!" thrusts fist into the air. "GENIUS, i tells ya!"

yyyeah. i'm learning more and more that writing is about sticktuitiveness as much as or more than creative greatness, and hitting that wall over and over is forcing me to question the whole shebang. but i don't give up completely, because that would leave me feeling even more lost than i do in the struggle--in "the shit", to be blunt and colorful.

so i spent a few minutes searching for answers, or inspiration, or a really good fish & chips recipe--because working on the next chapter would be useful--and i found this:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-3-Creative-Sinkholes&id=2344791

Valery Satterwhite discusses aspects of our lives and selves that sabotage accessing our creative GENIUS, and i'm not even exaggerating. i agree with her points, as much as it means i may have to face some prickly truths about myself. i mean, i like being comfortable. but i can't deny that considering the possibility of my own latent conflict of self interest leaves me a bit fidgety. hitting close to the bone? mebbe.

what say you? are you sabotaging your own path to greatness?

ps--for that awesome fish recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/fish-and-chips-recipe/index.html

answering the buzzing brain

official monday prompt:

i found this link, which explains automatic writing. direct, subconscious writing that may (or may not) reach your pure self and bring out its truest expression. i bet you've got some freaky deaky in there; i'm curious about what comes out when you try this technique. go, surrealists, go!!

http://www.languageisavirus.com/articles/articles.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1099110599&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&

contest win!

i found out recently i've been chosen as the winner in a site contest administered by www.reviewfuse.com. awesome!

i'd be excited anyway, but the reason i'm particularly pleased is how the contest is judged:
*stage one--> the top-rated three stories are read and judged by the site admins.
*stage two--> each submission in the contest requires the author also critique stories. the site admins read and judge those critiques for helpfulness and thoroughness.

so, winning requires relative skill at both writing and giving feedback to other writers--my kinda contest!

the official results will be posted tomorrow, aug 10th, in the site blog. i'm sure they'd love for a few unexpected visitors. :)

prompting.

official monday prompt:

i love the word "cusp."

it's just a great word--and the meaning is cool in many different contexts. you've got the cusp of adulthood, the cusp of aquarius, bi-cuspid (okay, i cheated on that one.) but really, it's a cool word. and it feels good in the mouth.

what words do it for you? words that feel packed with power and potential, that feel like you could make some great metaphors from them? go play, and see what unexpected connections you make.