Beginnings

The start of any story, whether it is short or long, has to grab the readers attention. This is especially true with new writers. Old hats at the game have name recognition, I've been known to grind through a marginal beginning based only on the fact that the writers work is known to me. There is the hope that it will improve, whereas in the case of an unproven author, there is no track record on which to base that hope.

When I started Imperfect Hope, I started with an opening scene even before I had a full plot, something that I felt would grab a reader and make him want to continue. Enticing though it was, something that I read in one of Orson Scott Card's writing books pointed out that putting a character in a dire situation before the reader has a chance to care about the protagonist is dangerous. Originally, I'd thought to start in the middle of the story, describe Redwynn's dire straits, then jump back in time to describe how she'd gotten there, and end the book with the solution. There are times when I still thing it will work, but for now, I'm keeping my time line sequential. I can always rearrange it later, I suppose.

At anyrate, I'm jumping back into the story both feet first. If you hear an unpleasant crunching sound, that's just me grinding away at the tale. Writing exercises and blogging will be my stretching, and my cool downs for this exercise. Watch out...

Clear skies,
Jim

Writing and writing

Writing exercise can be a chore, or they can be fun. Today I worked on setting practice, the workshop assignment asked me to recall a place where I once lived, and describe it in 2 or 3 pages. I chose Bedford Massachusetts, where I lived in the late 60's. I was in 6th and 7th grade then.

The exercise forced me to draw deeply from memory, and in order to avoid turning it into a dry recital of facts, I had to depict personal aspects of the setting. It ended up being 3 pages, and the exercise does encourage me to go back and polish it, something I'll do. For now, it's a rough draft type reading.

I'm supposed to give the setting enough feel that you can picture it in your mind. Use more than just sight, and don't just get sentimental. Did I write enough to bring you into my old town, what's missing.

Like I said, this is first draft. But go ahead and read it at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfmh4kks_2grt9mf . Please comment as well, this is me asking for critique. I'd prefer comments in the comment field below, but because of the nature of googledoc storage, you can add comments directly to the file (I can even go back and reject them, especially if you do something like use a red font!)

Clear skies,
Jim

Writing, remembering, and dreaming

I've been putting some time into doing some workshop exercises to practice the craft of writing. In some ways, it's like weight lifting or cardio for fitness, different kinds of exercises work different parts of the writing muscles. Like my weight loss program, I'll be most successful if I am consistent.

Yesterday, the exercise was to recall 3 of my earliest (if not the earliest) memories, write them down, and then see if I can create a 3rd person story out of them. What came out surprised me. Of course,what I wrote was non-genre, quite different from the fantasy/science fiction I generally work in, but that's part of the exercise. It got me to looking at a different side of a story.

The memories were all from when I was perhaps 3 or 4, I remember living in an apartment that had a kiddie/wading pool on the other side of the apartment parking area. One of the memories involved around eating some cheerios (yes, the memory is that specific), and trying to explain to an adult (friend of my fathers who was visiting) why cheerios were good for you. Another involved seeing some twin girls, probably 5 or 6 years old (ancient to me) who each had a red scooter that they happily tooled around the parking lot on, taunting me, who wanted desperatly to try it. Third memory involved running to the wading pool one day, after forgetting to put on sandals or shoes, and stepping on a bee in a clover patch. Needless to say, I howled...

SO what can you do with such disparate memories? It turns out, a lot. I got some practice writing in a vastly different voice, describing things from the viewpoint of a 4 year old, even while I added and changed aspects of the memory to make it a story, and not just images. It turned out to be fun, though I will also admit I found myself thinking hard about the exercise. At one point, Irma poked her head in on me, and noted that I was smiling (eek, caught me enjoying myself!)

What can I do with it? Practice polishing it. Turn it around to try different viewpoints (how about the viewpoint of one of the adults?) Alter the genre and use the imagery to create depth in one of my projects. WHo knows...

Anyone care to opine about their own first memories? Call it a challenge, don't worry about a story, just dredge up what you thing you remember and share it. Belief it or not, it's fun.

Clear skies,
Jim

More Kauai

A little more travelogue. A little less pontification.

Kauai is home to the Kauai coffee company. Most people think of hawaiian coffee and think Kona. Did you know, though, that so little "kona" is grown on the big island, that most "kona" coffees are just blends, requiring only 10% kona to qualify as a kona blend. That's not to suggest that kona blends aren't good, just that it's not all you're cracking it up to be.

The Kauai Coffee Company (http://www.kauaicoffee.com/) is the largest coffee plantation in Hawaii. They sell both green (unroasted) beans, and several varieties of roasts, depending on the harvest.

It's good.

We toured the plantation, saw some of their acreage including beans about ready to harvest, sampled several of their recent roasts, and sent gifts to all the kids. Now we're waiting patiently for our first order from the coffee of the month club to arrive. Mmmmm.....

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As to writing this week, I've been reviewing tips/hints and stuff from a couple of the books I"d read earlier this year, and taking a hard look at my possible writing schedules. I'm going to schedule writing like a part time job, but I'll probably start pretty slowly, and build to a sustainable level. One challenge is keeping everything else together, I have a healthy to do list for this fall, and we're heading in to the holiday season. Add in work and the inevitable fatigue, and I've got to be careful to avoid burning out. (scary to think how close I was to that 4 weeks ago.) So this weekend, I'm gearing up with some writing exercises, and trying to decide where to restart. Tonight, the exercise will be to write a page or so on a very brief glimpse of a group of people I saw somewhere, a bus, or street, or something..... Wish me luck.....



Clear skies,
Jim

Who am I, Who are you?

A couple of decades ago, I remember taking a myers-briggs personality test, as part of a psychology class I was taking at the time at CU. The reason I remembered this recently is that one techinique used in character construction while writing is to run that test for your major characters, getting an idea of how and why that character may act. Out of curiousity, I did some web searches, and came up with a whole host of useful sites for character development through personality testing.

That also got me thinking. I remember when I took that M-B test, I scored as an INFP. (One good description of an INFP is found at http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/infp.htm .) FOr those who don't know about it, Myers briggs breaks personality into 4 axis, scoring you along the axis in each area. That pigeonholes you into one of 16 categories, as defined by the 4 letter type.

In a nutshell, the first letter refers to energy orientation, where you turn your mental energy, inwardly or outwardly. I vs E

Those who prefer Introversion draw their primary energy from the inner world of information, thoughts, ideas, and other reflections. Tose preferring Introversion find the need to retreat to a more private setting as if to recharge their drained batteries. In contrast, those who prefer Extraversion are drawn to the outside world as their elemental source of energy. They must engage the things, people, places and activities going on in the outside world for their life force.

Letter 2 refers to how one perceives, or takes in information. S or N


Those who prefer Sensing Perception favor clear, tangible data and information that fits in well with their direct here-and-now experience. In contrast, those who prefer Intuition Perception are drawn to information that is more abstract, conceptual, big-picture, and represents imaginative possibilities for the future.

Letter 3 refers to how one forms judgements or makes decisions. T or F

Those who prefer Thinking Judgment have a natural preference for making decisions in an objective, logical, and analytical manner with an emphasis on tasks and results to be accomplished. Those whose preference is for Feeling Judgment make their decisions in a somewhat global, visceral, harmony and value-oriented way, paying particular attention to the impact of decisions and actions on other people.

The last letter refers to how one deals with the outside world J or P

Those who prefer Judging rely upon either their T or F preference to manage their outer life. This typically leads to a style oriented towards closure, organization, planning, or in some fashion managing the things and or people found in the external environment. The drive is to order the outside world. While some people employ an assertive manner, others "ordering touch" - with respect to people - may be light. Those who prefer Perceiving rely upon either their S or N preference to run their outer life. This typically results in an open, adaptable, flexible style of relating to the things and people found in the outside world. The drive is to experience the outside world rather than order it; in general lack of closure is easily tolerated.

So. 25 years ago, I was Labled as (I)ntroverted, i(N)tuitive, (F)eeling, (P)erceptive. Out of curiousity, I took one of the online tests again to see if I've changed.

Nope. Still INFP. Still a "Healer", or "dreamer:.

If you'd like to learn more, one web site that seems to have a lot of info is http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html . You can see where you fit, follow links to learn more about your type, and generally fiddle with the fiddlybits to your hearts content. For a more detailed, psych type test, try http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm .

Oh, two sites that describe INFP's (me) are http://www.personalitypage.com/INFP.html or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INFP .

So, who are you. Feel free to comment (I"ve opened comments to anyone, don't need to be a member at all, so go ahead. Be anonymous if you wish......

Now, to apply this to writing.....

Clear skies,
Jim

THE VACATION

Yes, I capitalized everything on purpose. Two weeks in Kauai. Ahhhhh. Irma and I both agree, it was our best vacation, most relaxing, destressing, and restorative. For those who haven't been, Let me play travelogue for a bit and reveal a little of our journey.....

The Kiahuna Plantation is very well hidden behind thick flowering hedges, surrounded by gardens and pristinely trimmed lawns. It is secreted between a massive, block-like Marriot time share complex, and the (soulless feeling) Kauai Sheraton (from where the web-cam overlooks the shared Sheraton/Kiahuna beaches). The condo's are simple, we stayed in a one bedroom unit perhaps 100 yards from the beach, overlooking putting-green manicured lawns and gardens. Plumeria trees filled the area with their rich aroma, in the evening, our lanai was shaded by tall palm trees and several other types of flowering trees.

We started each day with coffee on our lanai, listening to the Mynah's squawk, and the Zebra Doves coo, often they would drop right in on our railing and serenade us. The aroma of the coffee would mingle with the floral scents, sometimes the ocean breeze would waft the salt air aroma to us. Coffee will never taste as good, nor any day start as softly and with as much promise as this.

It was in this quiet beginning that Irma and I would consider our day. Whether to start with a walk along the beach, or plan a more extensive hike. What we might fix for dinner that night, or where we might eat. We'd banter about shopping, or consider which luau or tour we might like. Sometimes we'd just listen to the gentler bird sounds, lost in our own thoughts, sometimes we'd laugh at the screech of whichever bird it was that I dubbed "Monkey screech bird" our first morning. Whether 30 minutes, or 2 hours, each morning lent an air of tranquility to the rest of our day. That is a legacy from Kauai that I'm going to hang on to.....

Anyway, that's a small taste. I'll write more later.

Clear skies,
Jim

He's Back

There is an incredible truth to the statement, "We really needed this vacation". Never was this more clear to me than after returning from Kauai, I realized how far down the rat hole I'd fallen. Comparing myself before and after is enlightening, I see how stress and dis-ease (hyphen purposefully inserted, more on that later) quietly overwhelm without giving any overt clues that it is happening. It's like the proverbial frog in a stew pot, put him in hot water and he'll jump out, recognizing that it's bad, but put him in cold water, then slowly raise the tempurature, and chances are, the frog won't realize it's too hot until it's too late: frog soup.



So, what do I do with this re-created me? (there's that pesky hyphen again. what in the world does it mean?) For one, a ton of writing ideas flooded in, everything from how to tie several pieces of the D'oril saga together, to a macro-scale idea for the legendary history of D'oril and how I can use it in the tales I've been dancing around with. New characters floated around, as well as improvements on the ones I'd already started on. It'll all start flowing together as I put my writing schedule back on the table.

In the meantime, where am I now. Essentially, I stopped all writing efforts from a couple of weeks before we left for Kauai, giving myself a mental break from this new job, until now. Today at work, I reopened Imperfect Hope and reread the first draft of chapter 1, I resisted efforts to start editing right away. I"m going to let it mull around in my brain stew for a day or so, while I review my overal plot and notes. Then, who knows.

Writing, however, feels good again. Wish me luck.