Blooming: Setting

Hi, folks: I'm continuing my blog series Blooming, and I'm keeping with the list-y format. I'm offering pre-writing activities for setting this week. Authentic setting will make your stories pop!  I hope that something here helps you utilize place within your stories like it is a living breathing character. 

Travel -- One powerful way to create setting is to go there. Here is a link to Stephanie Meyer's trip to Forks, WA.   Take a camera, a notebook, a recorder and go crazy!  Don't  be shy. Talk to old timers, visit old houses, tromp through historical sites, and tiptoe through graveyards!

Shop -- I have more than one friend that shops for vintage photos on eBay. I also like to rummage around in antique shops. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words.

Maps -- I love Google Earth. Man, it is addictive. At Google Maps you can get directions to drive, take transit, walk or bike there. Very handy.  I also like Map Quest.  Here is a link to 3-D virtual room software.  I also am a pretty handy doodler and create maps for my fantasy and sci-fi worlds. If you don't doodle, try fantasy map making software like at ProFantasy Software.

Model -- Here is a link to Dollhousecity. You might want to but miniature set of furniture for a room. Here is a Wooden Dollhouse Set from Amazon. This can be handy if you have a fight scene and need to toss some furniture around.  Exactly how does a chair look that is tossed out a window? I mean you could really toss a chair out the window or ....

Archives -- Did you know almost all major cities have online photo archives?  Here are a couple to get you started.   Here is NYC Municipal Archives.  Here is a link to the City of Houston Gallery.  Newspapers also have photo archives.  Here is one to the Chicago Tribune. I am also a big fan of the digital collections at the Library of Congress.

If you are in doubt, Google it. 

I think following up with some of these pre-writing activities are a great way to build strong story bones.  I hope that you are moving forward with your project.

Here is this week's doodle:  "Dandelion".

Here is a quote for your pocket.

All the ideas in the universe can be described by words. Therefore, if you simply take all the words and rearrange them randomly enough times, you’re bound to hit upon at least a few great ideas eventually. Sausage donkey swallows flying guillotine, my love assembly line.
 Jarod Kintz

Blooming: Plot

Hi, folks! My cold is better this week, but I keeping my listy format for the month. I'm offering pre-writing activities for writers, and this week I'm focusing on plot. I have found pre-writing activities insure that you create viable manuscripts. I hope that you find something here interesting. 

Charts -- Here is a link to actual charts of authors on Flavorwire: Charts and Diagrams Drawn by Famous Authors. You can see how regular writer folk like J.K. Rowling, Jack Kerouac,  and Kurt Vonnegut plot stories. I'm not sure how you write a novel without doing some charting.  Everyone finds their own chart method. Check out several and then create your own.

Cards -- How do you keep all those plot points together? Here is a 3x5 card method  illustration -- the tried and true method -- at Kimberley's Wanderings.

Software -- If you are like me you don't a ton of pieces floating around you.  Hey, you lose stuff. This organizational software will help. Writer's Blocks is a popular program to get you started.  I am also a fan of Celtx.  Many love  their Scrivener. It has excellent plotting stuff.

Story Journals -- Here is a peek at author Laini Taylor's story journal at Figment.  This a working place to build a plot.

Dreaming-- Try this activity.  Think about your plot for about an hour before you go to bed. Think hard about each plot point. You will find gaps. You will find walls where you don't know what happens next. You will think certain plot elements are weak, but you won't know how to fix them. Just think. In the morning take a couple of hours and think again. This time write what you think. Keep doing this until you know. Stuff to put in your story journal.

Gossiping -- Join together with your writing gurus and talk about your plot. Argue. Joke. Sound off.  Let them offer their ideas. You might want to tape this or take notes.  This is a great way to get a plot engine going.  You might put your notes in a story journal.

Chatting -- This is about taking a walk. You tell a trusted friend about your story without interruption. As you tell your story, allow yourself to change directions, up the stakes, and be inventive.  After this chat, write about what you learned about your story. You might put this in a story journal too.

Write the book -- Sounds crazy to me, but some folks just don't have a clue unless they start writing. This draft is very exploratory.Your plot will be a mess: dead ends, rabbit holes, and incongruity.You might write 8 versions of the same chapter in it to find one.  I have heard of authors who write this draft and delete it. If this is your cup of tea, NANOWRIMO is for you.

If you pick some of these activities and do them, your plot is sure to bloom. Guaranteed.

Here is a doodle: "Louisana Iris."

Quote for the week:

Every discourse, even a poetic or oracular sentence, carries with it a system of rules for producing analogous things and thus an outline of methodology. Jacques Derrida

Blooming: Characters

Hi, folks! I hope that you are having a good week. I am down with a bad cold and am wondering why I still have a jacket out in May. It was almost 40 degrees yesterday morning. Brr. I don't know how anything is going to bloom, but my friend the pecan farmer and children's author, Andy Sherrod, assures me that if the ground is warm, so stuff is going to bloom.  So how do you get your ground warm?

I will spend this month sharing prewriting activities that I use to ensure success.  This week I'm going to touch on prewriting characters. I'm going to give you serious activities to help! 

Scrap:  Gather together pictures that represent your characters. Building composites using one photo's eyes, another's nose, etc. works.  Try  istockphoto.com but there are many more stock sites. 

Personality:   I always take the Enneagram test for my characters. Also do the Jung Typology Test.  Here is a link to a bunch more personality tests, and, yes, I do use some of these.

Traits: Martina Boone offers this useful character trait  worksheet.  I also love these character questionnaires from the Gotham Writers Workshop. My best advice, look at a number of character questionaires and worksheets and then design one that fits your style.

Letter: Have all your main characters write you a letter telling you what they think this journey is about.

Act: Take an hour or a whole day and pretend to be your character. When you are done take an hour to write down what you learned from the exercise..

Cast: Go to imbd.com and see if you can find the perfect actors to play the parts of your characters.

Journal:  Write a journal from your character's POV about the events of your story.  You don't have to go crazy here, you should do this until it is easy to produce interior thoughts from your character.

Interview:  Find folks who you feel may connect with your character and do character interviews of them.  (This always makes people cry -- take tissues and a Starbucks card.)

Okay, this feels like enough to get  your started.  Enjoy the blooming process. Do this stuff and when your start to write, your characters will pop off the page.  Guaranteed.

Come back next week for more blooming. Seize the day!

Doodle this week: "Swimming Fish."

Here is the quote for the week.

Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Everything will be okay
See?
Just keep swimming
Move your tail
And sure enough we'll find our way
Oh sometimes things look bad
Then poof! The moment is gone
And what do we do?

Dory, Finding Nemo (Thomas Newman)

April Showers: Creative Exposure

Hi, folks, this is the last in my series, April Showers. This week I'm going to dip into creative exposure. This is way I jump start my imagination.  It's all about feeding your artistic soul.

Here is an example: I just road-tripped to Austin last night to see an early screening of Iron Man 3 hosted by Ain't It Cool News.  I met a group of engineers who work on luxury airplanes and an artist from England who comminserated with me about the deep truth that the process of creating art is what interest artists and not selling their art. For me, I feel excited about what I am working on right now -- I remember with fondness the incredible journey of my completed works. We nodded at each other, sharing the weirdnness of this situation.

Then I watched a nicely crafted movie written by Shane Black with Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley and others, having gleeful fun. Why some of these Marvel movies don't win a few more shiny statues is a mystery to me. Fun isn't worthy I guess. At a movie like this, it is all about the spectacle. Spectacle isn't lauded as art in exalted communites. I hope I never reach such heights of snobbery. After the movie I was struck with the most creative piece of the journey -- a misty moon in the sky.  I imagined witches, dragons, and monsters in that full moon wreathed in clouds.  I call the moon my lagniappe of the journey. What's a lagniappe?  Like the thirteenth donut in a dozen, it's that that little something extra. 

I think following your curiosity is the best bet when it comes to creative exposure. I search for what challenges me. I try to read impossibly difficult books or stuff that everyone is reading, just to see what that is all about. I search out the weird and the wonderful and make sure I get a chance to revel in it. I also hunger for the divine and search for sacred spaces and holy connections. I'm a self-proclaimed geek and also try to wedge in some geekdom fun whenever I can. I'm a lover of art and good music, and tasty food and chunk out time for that too. Of course, I love writing conferences, open reads, and critique groups, but, oh, I like the opera, a good dance troupe and will stop to watch skaters at the local skate park when I have time. 

Here's the deal, not everything speaks to me, but I am very aware of what does. I energize my creative self and make sure that I receive exposure. Not getting enough exposure is like not getting enough sun; your bones start to wither.

I hope that you spend some time seeking creative exposure this week. I will be back next week with a series called Blooming, all about pre-writing activities that help me produce the fruit of writing--manuscripts. 

Here is my doodle: "Iron Man Chicken."

Quote for the week:

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

April Showers: Marvel

Water your soul by pouring the best of art into your soul.  Part of the reason for why we create is a response to the world around us. You need to take time to marvel at the natural world around you. Your books will be infused with the wonder of the world as you take the time to admire the astonishing details that surround you.

It's cool to travel to exotic places with breath-taking vistas but I've found that these places aren't always the ones that speak to me the most. In fact, I've found it's difficult to predict which places will speak to me the most. I've come to the conclusion that you must trust your instincts when it comes to connection. The natural landscape that you gravitate toward will sometimes surprise you. Search for the spots that squeeze emotion out of your pores.

I have a little ritual that I perform in new places. I go very still and let the place speak to me. Thousands of detail begin to bombard me. I could never verbalize what I am taking in. But I have noticed that allowing space to take in the details will energize my storytelling. It's almost like taking a memory photograph or movie. I can easily return to these memories and recall every sense. I can also pull in every nuance of emotion I felt. I'm convinced these tiny details are what make your work rise above the rest. You must have the information within you to put it on the page.

Finally, you don't have to go on a far flung trip across the globe to find what you are looking for. Your bluebird of happiness might be in your backyard. You might string a hammock between two trees and just marvel at the sound of the wind and birds. You might stare at the whorls formed by the leaves of a succulent. You might break off sprigs in your herb garden and let the aromas swirl in your mind. Search for what speaks to you. Watch a spider build a web. Listen to bird song and bubbling brooks. Pile sun warmed rocks on your belly. Marvel in the world around you.

All these glorious details will set your mind on fire. Take time to marvel. I will be back next week the the conclusion of April Showers. Meanwhile seize the day.

No doodle this week. Here is a photo of my hammock, but my son Jack is marveling at the moment. 

Here is a quote for your pocket:

The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it...  -Ralph Waldo Emerson