Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail for 05/29/13

“The Muse visits during the act of creation, not before. Don’t wait for her. Start alone.” ― Roger Ebert

Tuesday at B&N . . .

Ruth Imhoff started the night with Chapter 1, The Motto of the Hound. Ray suggested using the coroner’s name once we learn it. Nice set-up, good intrigue. Daniel as a detective, though, should be cataloging the crime scene. Throw in some clues, more details. Jen thought the voice was a little passive. Need more action, too much being told what’s going on. Rebecca lost track of the relationship of the characters at points. Wasn’t sure who the nemesis was… could be point of view issues. Carol thought it was a good set-up, especially the line about Daniel being back from personal leave – what happened?

Mike R. shared a couple of poems with us. Holly thought the line about “love for all” could be clarified a bit, and Carol spotted the use of the word “lost” in quick succession. Rebecca thought the line about spontaneity was a bit convoluted, but enjoyed the details in the resot of the poem. Katelin liked the first poem better, as the imagery stood out for her more. Ray liked the line about ambivalence relating to the strength to do right.

Ray Woodruff read Chapter 1 from his novel. Carol found it very creepy, felt the kid was behaving so well because he was absolutely terrified. Andy thought the narrative put downs of the kid were excessive. Holly said the kid didn’t really relate to the mom as a mom, and appears more scared than trusting. Katelin followed up on that, saying the narrator’s perspective is overriding that of the child and is creating the difference between scared and trusting. Andy thought it was well written, but perhaps a little too dark, which distracted from what was going on in the scene. Carol liked the line “He’s pretty sure bad things happen in the dark.”

Katelin Cummins offered scenes from her new idea, Viera. Holly wondered if you would describe a paint color as mysterious. There was some concern about the boyfriend’s comment (“Sculpting again?”) as being too obvious, but Carol heard it as more of a weary, “Oh, you’re lost in your sculpting again, aren’t you.” Ray pointed out some tense change issues. He liked the dialog a lot – it felt very true. But build up the moment where the statue speaks. Holly suggested writing the ending – once you do that, you’ll know where the story has to go.

Bill Eisinger brought in a rewrite of “Conflict.” Andy felt the main character was heartless and unlikeable, but the cop’s comment about arresting him was a bit unrealistic. He also wondered if the person in the school would call security right away. The rest of the group said “yes,” she probably would, especially these days. Katelin sympathized with Maria – she didn’t really do anything all that awful and the main character is overreacting. Rebecca felt this version had a better dramatic build-up, and Holly commended Bill on how much growth his writing is showing from draft to draft.

Carol Hornung read a scene from Ghost of Heffron College. Some people are still having trouble with the male ghost having the name Brandi, and Rebecca said the people at the party weren’t nearly high/drunk enough. Andy agreed, feeling the partygoers were there more for the pizza rather than the booze and pot. Holly thought there should be some music playing in the background. Maybe turn off the music to tell the ghost stories. Ray had a hard time picturing a strange shaped shadow. What’s so strange about the shadows?

Who’s up next . . .

June 4: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Betsy Draine (chapter), Bob Kralapp (???), Michelle Nightoak (chapter, memoir), Alicia Connolly Lohr (novella, chapters 7-8, Lincoln’s Other War), and Jerry Peterson (chapters 11-12, The Last Good Man).

June 11: Andy Pfeiffer, scene from novel; Ruth Imhoff, scene from The Motto of the Hound; Ray Woodruff, scene from novel; Carol Hornung, scene from Ghost of Heffron College; Jen Wilcher & Rebecca Rettenmund with a report on the Writer’s Institute they recently attended, Carol Hornung with an update on the publication of Asperger Sunset and what it’s like to work with Create Space.

Next Fifth Tuesday . . .

Put it on your calendar now. Our next Fifth Tuesday is July 30. First-and-third group hosts. The place is not yet set, but the writing challenge is . . . Fortune cookie fortunes. You select a fortune from a list we will provide you on or about July 1, then write a story, poem, or essay in which you use the fortune in some way. Length? Our ever popular 250 words or less.

Booked for Murder changes name, location

The former Booked for Murder bookstore in Madison has a new name, Mystery to Me. Its new owner, Joanne Berg, is moving the store to 1863 Monroe St. Grand Opening on June 15^th.

Using Polls: From Info Gathering to Collaborative Storytelling

From The Daily Post At WordPress.com

by Cheri Lucas Rowlands on May 22, 2013

Recently, LouAnn talked about creating a form on your blog to engage with your readers — to ask for feedback or guide your discussions. Today, let’s chat about adding a poll, which is another interactive way to gather information from your site visitors.

WordPress.com is integrated with a popular poll service called Polldaddy, so you can create a poll right in your dashboard. When you create a poll, you ask one multiple-choice question and create predefined answers from which your readers can choose. The feature is quite handy if you’re looking for specific feedback and want your readers to weigh in on a discussion. You can add a poll to a post, page, or even your sidebar — and configure its settings to suit your needs.

Examples of polls on WordPress.com

Bloggers use polls in different ways. Writer Alaina Mabaso wrote a candid, thorough list of 10 non-fatalistic, real-life tips for freelance writers that approaches freelance writing with common sense. At the end of the post, she uses a poll to gauge whether her tips were helpful or not:

So, a poll can be a straightforward way to collect feedback from your readers — in this instance, to see what works and what doesn’t.

Editor and linguist Stan Carey uses polls to inform his own research and work. Over at his blog, Sentence first, he explores the history, usage, and quirks of the English language, and his discussions on its evolution — especially in this digital age — are provoking and entertaining.

In a recent post on GIFs, he asked his readers: How do you pronounce GIF?

Adding this multiple-choice question to his post is a simple way to compile responses — and allows readers to interact in this discussion du jour. And if you’re curious, as of this writing, 65.93 percent of this poll’s voters agree that GIF is pronounced with a hard g, as you can see in the results (which Stan has opted to display after a reader casts a vote):

Photographer Ming Thein has a comprehensive site for photography, full of commentary, photo essays, tutorials, reviews, and more. Ming leads workshops, and recently added polls to a post to ask readers their location preferences for upcoming sessions in Europe.

He includes two polls: one to gauge interest for workshops in various cities, from Prague to Munich, and a second one underneath for voters to specify a time during the fall. Here, you can see how a poll can be extremely helpful in project planning and logistics.

(Read the rest of the article here: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/polls/ )

The Book Baby Blog: 6 Essential Tips For Your Own Stay-at-Home Writing Retreat

by BookBaby on May 21, 2013 in Writing Tips

[This post was written by guest contributor Beth Barany, author The Writer’s Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book.]

We all want to get our writing done. A writer writes, after all. But what to do when you have a busy life, a full-time job, family, and necessary obligations like health, and oh, sleep? One way to handle getting your writing done is to set up your very own Stay-at-Home Writing Retreat. In fact, because I’m publishing my second novel soon, I go on a writing retreat just about every Friday and Saturday. You can do something similar.

Create your own stay-at-home writing retreat.

What: Typically, writing retreats involve going away, far from everyday obligations, and focusing solely on your writing. Retreats can vary in length, anything from a few days to a few months, like a summer. In this article I focus on creating your own writing retreat at home (or in your hometown).

Why: Writing retreats are great for getting away from it all. You get a chance to step aside from everyday obligations and give yourself the gift of total focus to get your writing done. If you want to can also surround yourself with other supportive folks, like teachers and/or fellow writers. In the case of your Stay-at-Home Writing Retreat, you won’t have to bother with expensive travel, the time of that expensive travel, and bed bugs.

How: here are my 6 essential tips for your very own Stay-at-Home Writing Retreat…

1. Set reasonable goals for yourself to manage your own expectations.

If you’ve never written all day, then don’t expect you’ll be able to do that on your writing retreat. If on the other hand, you’ve been able to write for 1-hour stints, then during your retreat, with no other responsibilities, you could perhaps do two to three 1-hour stints.

2. Make it fun.

Go to a location that you love, be it the local cafe, diner, restaurant, or your home office, living room, or dining table. One time my husband and I cafe-hopped down College Ave. in Oakland, and even stopped off at the Rockridge Library, and several yummy cafes.

3. Use time limits.

Set the timer to complete in chunks that feel reasonable to you. I love 20-minute timed writing sessions for journal writing or character sketches. And since I like writing in 1-hour chunks, I set the timer to write prose for an hour. I also set the timer so that I will be sure to get up and walk around, take a water fluid adjustment break, or in the case of our College Ave hop, to move to a new location.

4. Congratulate/reward yourself.

All work and no play makes Jane an unhappy girl, to riff off of a saying (“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”) In our College Ave. Writing retreat, we rewarded ourselves with a break at the chocolate cafe, Bittersweet, on College Ave.

5. Plan your Stay-at-Home Writer’s Retreat in advance so that you can rearrange your other commitments and plan for your success.

Some of the things I do to plan ahead is I set reasonable, realistic goals for myself. (See #1) So for example last weekend, I decided I’d spend at least 1 hour inputting edits. On other days, I’ve also given myself word-count goals. This helps me know when I’ve hit my goals, which is so very important, so that I can congratulate and reward myself: chocolate! (See #4)

6. Tell your accountability-partners, supporters, and fans.

When you plan to do something new, it can help to tell the important supportive people in your life what you’re planning on doing. Use your social media network to share your intention, progress, and success. Telling your supportive community helps you follow through—social pressure, and all that—but it also allows people to support you, and congratulate you, and celebrate with you. (Yep, See #4 again)