Delaying tactics

July 20, 2018July 19, 2018 ~ Meg ~ 33 Comments

I thought about reposting an older story today to tide me over until I get the next section of Small Cuts ready. Then I thought I’d just explain instead. Sometimes even when you have all your ideas plotted out, the actual words won’t come. Or at least, not the words you envisioned. I am writing the story, but I’m not thrilled with the way I’m telling it. This kind of thing happens when I work on longer projects: I write and then rewrite and then edit the crap out of it. So why the uninspired wordsmithing? Let me tell you…

As I started letting the word out about giving up my chiropractic license, so many of my long time patients called to schedule so they could say farewell. It’s been bittersweet. I’ve taken care of some of these folks for twenty plus years. Some of them drive from more than an hour away since they followed me to my home office from the other practice I worked at. They’ve become more than just patients – they are friends. And so it has been busier than normal and each appointment takes a little piece of my heart along with it.

I also had a bit of a health scare. I am fine. I don’t want to talk about it.

Then, last week, I went through the dreadful task of putting my beloved Jay Dog to sleep. I didn’t mention it at the time because I could barely talk about it without dissolving into tears. He had been going downhill for a while and we knew the time had come. It is the worst decision a pet owner ever has to make. I have been having audio-hallucinations: I imagine hearing his nails on the hardwood floors, his collar jangling and him rolling around on the carpet to scratch his nose. I adopted Jay Dog right after I lost my father. Nothing could replace my Dad, but having that sweet boy dog for company sure did help.

As you can imagine, my mind has been a jumble. It’s been hard to focus. Each day gets a little better, though. I still haven’t returned to form with my writing yet. But I will eventually. Thanks for your patience, dear friends.

Same old, same old…

April 11, 2018April 10, 2018 ~ Meg ~ 20 Comments

Adventures in fiction writing.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The longer you write, the more you will find yourself using the same or similar words and phrases over and over again. Especially if we write conversationally –the way we speak in everyday life. Our speech may be reflective of the region in which we live or were born and raised, our ethnic origins or even our age. While these peculiarities will lend color and flavor to our writing, even they may get repetitive after a while. This is only amplified when we write longer fiction pieces or novels. Beyond using a thesaurus to change up specific repetitions, how else can we add variation to the words we pen?

Some of my earliest writing was in the form of poetry. That is not a coincidence. Poetry is introduced to us in the cradle by means of nursery rhymes and bedtime lullabies. As we grow and mature into our teen years and beyond, often music becomes a huge influence. Thus the lyrics of songs speak to us the way nothing else can. Many musicians like Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Patty Smith, Joni Mitchell, and Bruce Springsteen are considered to be not just song writers but poets as well.

Anthropologically, poetry in the form of song or saga has been used to help the balladeer or the skald keep the oral history of a people alive through story telling. It is some of the earliest writing ever discovered. The Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, dates back to 2000 BCE. Another Sumerian text, The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, may be even older than that.

What am I getting at, you ask? Poetry composition can be a delightful way to hone our skills in using creative vocabulary and illustative terminology. “But, I don’t want to be a poet,” you say. Shut up, yes you do. Here’s why…

I do enjoy writing poetry, but it is not my main avenue of expression. I am primarily a fiction writer. However, composing poetry demands that we paint a picture with our words, if you will. Putting things into verse, even if the verse doesn’t rhyme, pushes you to use descriptive and colorful terms that you wouldn’t use in day-to-day speech.

In describing my front lawn, for example, you could simply state, “the lawn was full of dead dandelions,” and that would be true! Before you write that ask, “What do those dandelions remind me of?” “What idea do they conjure?” They are dead, so how about headstones in a graveyard? They are skinny, so how about emaciated refugees fleeing a disaster or famine? They have tufts of thin, white spores… does that remind you of hair or clouds or even foam at the crest of a wave? Now write it like this, “Like a wave of fleeing refugees, the dandelions marched across the expanse of grass.”

I didn’t write a poem, but I wrote a poetic sentence. Obviously, a little of that can go a long way. Every sentence does not have to be metaphorical in nature. But in the right place, it can transform ordinary writing into extraordinary writing. I encourage you, if you have not attempted to write poetry before now, give it a try. You can find many accomplished poets here on WordPress as well as bloggers who sponsor poetry challenges. Why not give one a try? If you really can’t think of anything, try rewriting the lyrics of a favorite song. Remember, this is practice for fiction writing. Nevertheless, perhaps you will find that at heart, you are a poet after all.

Reading Challenge 2017 – What books did you read this year?

December 27, 2017December 26, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 35 Comments

It is the love of books that made me want to write one of my own. While it’s true that I don’t have the time to read as much as I used to –and mostly because of writing and its associated tasks– I still enjoy spending my free time with a good book. Each year for the past several, I’ve participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge in which I set a goal of reading from a list of books within the year. My goal was to read 20 books in 2017 –a modest amount for a woman who used to read a book a week before becoming an author herself!

I am happy to say that I surpassed my goal and read 25 books! Here is my list:

W.B. Yeats and the Muses – Joseph M. Hassett
A Farewell To Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Too Loud a Solitude – Bohumil Hrabal
Loving – Henry Green
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman
Heartbreak Hotel – Jonathan Kellerman
Princess Margaret, A Biography – Theo Aronson
The Complete Works of William Blake
Pills – Jack Binding
Camino Island – John Grisham
Storm Of Steel – Ernst Junger
X – Sue Grafton
The Whistler – John Grisham
Regeneration – Pat Barker
Crowned and Dangerous – Rhys Bowen
Speaking In Bones – Kathy Reichs
The Obsession – Nora Roberts
Time To Lie – Phil Taylor
The Human Factor – Graham Greene
Batman and Psychology – A Dark and Stormy Knight
Black Chalk – Christopher J. Yates
Don Quixote – Miguel Cervantes
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Bistro – Roger Moore

As you can see from the list, I don’t only read novels. The list includes two collections of short stories, two biographies, two non fiction books and a collection of poetry. Choosing a favorite from this group is difficult. Comparing books of different genres is like comparing apples to oranges, but I’ll share some of the standouts in the list, for better or worse.

I was fascinated to read the perspective of a German officer during World War One in Storm of Steel. My research on the Great War had been, with the exception of All Quiet On the Western Front, written from the standpoints of Belgium, France, Britain and the rest of their allies. Ernst Junger presents an enthusiastic (without being unrealistic) narration of his experiences as a soldier in the German Army. This is a marked contrast to the reluctant soldier (a character with whom we highly sympathize) in Erich Remarque’s All Quiet On the Western Front.

Watching season one of The Crown on Netflix made me curious about the romance between Group Captain Townsend and the Princess Margaret. Her biography was intriguing and sad. The book paints a story of a woman who embraced her royal status as much as she rebelled against conformity –quite the tale of two women. The thwarted love affair with Townsend is especially interesting and ironic considering the latest “Meg” to join the royal family is divorced, American and of mixed race. My, how times have changed! (For the better, at least in these kinds of situations.)

Black Chalk was the standout favorite of all the novels on the list. It is a psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator telling the story of a group of friends who begin a game in college which has consequences that grow ever more serious as time goes by –even to the extent of ruining lives. It was awesomely chilling!

And the biggest disappointment of the group was The Bell Jar. This is one of those books that I was ashamed to admit I had never read. Well, I finally crossed it off my to-do list but I can’t say I’m any more enriched for the experience. And I know many of you will say ‘what is wrong with you?’ when I tell you this but I was bored with the story. Bored and worn out with all the similes. The curtains didn’t just flutter in the breeze, they fluttered like the wings of half dead moths (or some such thing). Descriptions like that were stacked one top of another and it got tiresome. I also kept wondering what I was missing. This is supposed to be a life-changing book. I didn’t get it.

The previous year (2016), I failed my reading challenge thanks to an overly aggressive writing and blogging schedule and I realized I didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t taking in as many stories as I was putting out. I strongly believe that a good writer must be an avid reader. That means something different to everyone, as we all have busy lives. Most of us are carving out time from our ‘day’ jobs and our family and friends to make time for writing. How does one find the time to read as well?

My reading time is divided two ways: I read a little before bed every night and I listen to an audiobook while I exercise (nearly) every day. I may read research material for a project I’m working on as well. In 2018, I’m setting my goal at 25 books and we shall see if I can manage it with my writing goals for this year. Here’s what I have on my list, what’s on yours?