Ages from now, when archeologists dig up the strata of our time, it won’t be rock, but miles and miles deep of processed paper and envelopes.
Photo finish Friday: “Strata”
Filed under Photo by author, photo by David E. Booker, Photo Finish Friday
Haiku to you Thursday: “Runaway”
The sun runs away. /
Ice reflects the orbless sky. /
Stars wander alone.
Filed under Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
Writing tip Wednesday: “Attire and attitude”
What’s the best dressed author wearing these days, well here’s a way to find out.
The Illustrated A-Z Guide To Author Wardrobe Staples
by Kate Gavino
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kategavino/c-is-for-cardigan#.cvQdPjWq2
Learn now what you need to wear to better polish those sentences and tie up those loose ends in your writing.
And if you are new at this writing game, or starting to work on your first novel, consider this game as your guide to what’s ahead:
This Board Game Perfectly Captures What It’s Like To Write Your First Book
“Stare at the blank screen, try not to cry.”
by Jon Adams
Source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jonadams/pasta-filled-taco#.kdOLyPzwb
The board game to guide you through your novel writing experience.
Filed under writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday, writing tips
cARtOONSDAY: “nEVER aLONE”
It was the one good use he found for rejection slips. As long as he had these, Willard knew he was not alone.
Filed under cartoon by author, CarToonsday
A bit of old news: “Poetry and politics don’t mix”
For S.C.’s Poet Laureate, An Inauguration Poem Without An Inaugural Audience
by LAURA SULLIVAN
South Carolina’s Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth snubbed at recent GOP governor’s inauguration.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley starts her second term today. But absent from the inaugural ceremony will be a long-standing tradition: a poem read by the state’s poet laureate.
State officials say they cut the two-minute poem for time, but some residents suspect it was the mention of slavery that got it tossed.
Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth has written poems for South Carolina’s past three inaugurations. She describes those efforts as “safe.”
The poems leaned heavily on nature and animals.
But this year, she says, she was moved watching the protests across the country ignited by the deaths of unarmed black men. She wanted to incorporate some of that subject matter into her writing.
She took to Facebook and asked South Carolina’s residents their opinions and asked them to tell her what they thought she should write about.
“Some of them were quite beautiful,” she said of the posts she got.
Many suggested that the sensitive topic of slavery was the reason the poem was snubbed.
The rest of the story at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/14/377028376/for-s-c-s-poet-laureate-an-inauguration-poem-without-an-inaugural-audience
The blathering idiot and powder
The blathering idiot and Lydia were sitting in an Italian restaurant having dinner, discussing politics, or partly discussing politics.
“You know, I really don’t know much about you,” Lydia said, waving a breadstick at him.
“Even after the last campaign.”
“And I did not know you had a daughter,” the blathering idiot said. “Does she like politics?”
“People don’t like politics these days. They just endure it.”
“Like you do?”
“I like it. It’s what gets me going in the morning. What gets you going?”
“My alarm clock,” the blathering idiot said.
“You don’t say much.”
“I say enough.”
“Maybe that can work to our advantage. The Pro-Accordion Party could say it all with music.”
The blathering idiot nodded. He liked the way her face lit up when she thought she had a good idea.
The waiter brought the food and a new basket of breadsticks. He also refilled the water glasses. The blathering idiots had a slice of lemon in it; Lydia’s did not.
“You do play the accordion, don’t you?”
The blathering idiot frowned. She had forgotten since the last election for the highest office in the land. He had told her then he didn’t play the accordion or any other instrument. Since then, he had not learned how. He never expected to be considering running again. The first time was not nearly as much fun as Lydia seemed to remember it being.
“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” the blathering idiot said.
“She will not be coming with us on the campaign trail.”
“But the consultant—”
“The consultant can go to hell. She needs her education and not to be jerked around from one campaign stop to the next.”
“What is her name?”
“Bella.”
“Bella,” the blathering idiot said.
“Short for Isabella.”
“Is she short?”
“No. Where did you get that idea?”
“You said she was short for Isabella.”
“I mean Bella is short for Isabella.”
“Okay. Does she have a dad?”
Lydia glared at him. “Does she need one?”
The blathering idiot shrugged. “You tell me.”
They ate most of their meals in silence, though the blathering idiot couldn’t help slurping his spaghetti every now and then. There was something satisfying to the sound and the feel of a noodle flipping up and down just before the end enter his mouth. He didn’t even mind if a little sauce got on his face.
Lydia looked at him and couldn’t help but giggle.
“Okay, if you want to know, Bella’s father took a powder.”
The blathering idiot wiped his face with his napkin. The napkin was not large. “Which one?”
“What?”
“Which powder did he take? A blue one? Red? Was it over the counter or a prescription powder?”
“He skipped out. Left us high and dry. Ran away.”
“Oh, and he took his powder with him?”
Filed under blathering idiot
Photo finish Friday: “Little brown apple”
Apple on a fence.
I don’t know, but maybe I ought not
to have shoved this apple onto this spot.
For here it will remain
with no one to explain
as it shrivels away and begins to rot.
Poor little apple in my lunch
I spiked you away just on a hunch
that that brown spot
looked like food rot
and not something I’d want to munch.
Children are starving in places like China
or just down the street from a nearby diner.
Yet food by the bunches
goes uneaten after brunches
from fast-food shops and places much finer.
Bugs may come and have a heyday,
picking at the remains of the apple’s decay.
Eating away this fine shiner,
once bright as a light to a miner,
it’s soon dull and brown and shapeless as clay.
Good or evil? Oh, what have I done?
I’ve not fed the apple to anyone.
No nutrition for play.
Oh, how I’ve gone astray:
I should had eaten it or given it to someone.
I don’t know, but maybe I ought not
to have shoved this apple onto this spot.
For here it will remain
with no one to explain,
and even a homeless man will leave it to rot.
–by David E. Booker
Haiku to you Thursday: “Dr. Godot”
Wearing paper pants /
waiting for Doctor Godot /
Kafka is my nurse.
Filed under Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
Writing tip Wednesday: “Inside, outside, roundabout side”
Three categories to better characters
Sometimes, when creating a character, it is good to break the characteristics of character into three general categories: Inside, outside, and roundabout side. In reality as in your characters, you will probably find that these categories overlap, bump up against each other, maybe even at times clash. Sometimes a good character, like a real person, can be his or her own worst enemy.
Use this below as a starting point. You can add your own questions or prompts. And you can use this for all the major characters, including the protagonist and antagonist. It could even help with some of the minor characters, too.
With the following categories in mind, reread your manuscript with an eye toward making your characters as compelling as possible: both the good guys and the bad ones.
1. Looking in or sometimes called motivation
- What does your character want?
- What does your character need?
- Can you create a situation in which the need and the want come into conflict with each other?
- Did your character have a happy or unhappy childhood and why?
- What is your character obsessed with?
- What is your character’s biggest fear?
- What is your character’s biggest secret?
- What is the best thing that has happened to your character? The worst?
- What are your character’s past and present relationships? With parents? With friends? With enemies? With co-workers?
- What does your character care about?
2. Looking out or sometimes called appearance, aesthetics, maybe even Mirror, mirror on the wall
- What sex is your character?
- How old is your character?
- How tall is your character?
- Hair color? Eye color? Skin color?
- How many eyes, fingers, toes, etc. does your character have, or does your character have only some or none of these?
- Does your character have an odd-shaped nose or other physical trait? Is this trait lifelong or recently acquired?
- Does your character dress in the latest fashion with new clothes, in hand-me-downs, second-hand shop clothes, bargain basement buys?
- Does your character practice regular hygiene? Bath/shower regularly? Smell if he or she doesn’t?
- What would another character say about this character’s overall appearance?
3. Looking round about or sometimes called quirkiness, idiosyncrasy, or sometimes just plain weird
Please note, that a character’s quirkiness can often arise out of the looking in or looking out categories, and sometimes when one meets the other.
For example, the character could wear a fedora, may even have several for different occasions, and will wear nothing else on his / her head.
A small fear can be an idiosyncrasy. Your character could be afraid of spiders or the number 13.
- Does your character always were the same color?
- Does your character have a favorite number?
- Does your character always count up the change in his / her pocket the same way? Pennies first, then nickels, then dimes, etc.?
- Does your character have a nickname? If so, what is it and how does it relate to the character?
- What is the one word that would best describe your character?
–David E. Booker
Filed under writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday
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