Posts Tagged ‘creative writing’
Wizards, Giants, and the Collector’s Curse
My Number One Son is an athlete and sports fan. This lucky kid owns spectacular sports memorabilia. Some came as gifts, and he even caught a ball or two at baseball games. His most prized collectibles include an autographed jersey of his favorite football player, a baseball autographed by his favorite baseball player, and a pair of basketball shoes autographed by his favorite basketball star. You might say, this kid has the best collection in town! Only, the series of unfortunate events that followed the display of each of these prized items in my home leads me to believe that there is some kind of dark magic afoot. Because of big trouble, this display at my house is transformed from a wall of fame to a wall of shame?
Who are these troubled fallen heroes?
1. Giants player Plaxico Burress, who is currently serving a prison sentence for carrying an unlicensed gun that went off and wounded him at a Manhattan nightclub.
2. Yankees player Alex Rodriguez, who is now infamous in the steroid scandal.
3. The Wizards player Gilbert Arenas, who was arrested, pled guilty and is now awaiting sentencing on felony gun charges.
Since this is ‘real life’, I’ll chalk it up to coincidence, or the skyrocketing odds of a professional athlete descending into trouble. However, as a writer, who loves to spin a tale, I can’t help but to imagine scenarios where the a Sports Collectible shop is located on some sort of ancient burial ground. The ghosts look to the inventory of the store for haunting assignments, causing any athlete they haunt to become reckless and paranoid enough to resort to firearms, even shooting themselves in some instances. Or, where a teenage boy with a fantastic autographed baseball card collection stumbles upon an old book of voodoo curses in his grandfather’s basement and begins to read. Unbeknownst to him, the ingredients for assigning the curse – the reading of the hex aloud in the presence of a personal item and an authenticated signature spell disaster for the original owners of those items.
I love it when my creative juices get going. Tell me what you think of those ideas. And, I’d love to hear about strange real-life coincidences you’ve encountered.
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com
P.S. Don’t forget! There’s still time to complete this month’s writing exercise “The Photograph.” Anyone who posts that they have completed the assignment is entered into a drawing to win a free e-book of Double Out and Back and an e-book Cookbook, Kissin’ Don’t Last Cookin’ Do
http://llleibow.com/blog/2010/01/07/fodder-for-fiction-first-friday-writing-exercise-january-2010/
LISA’S MONTHLY RANT: This Girl Passes On TV’s That Need Glasses
Recent media reports promise three-dimensional images will jump out of movie theaters and into living rooms sometime this year. (e.g. CNN) According the linked report, Sony and Panasonic say they will release home 3-D television systems in 2010; Mitsubishi and JVC are reported to be working on similar products. Is this really as a simple as the switch from black-and-white to color television and the shift from standard- to high-definition images?
I’m less than enthusiastic about this new technology. Don’t get me wrong. It would be cool to watch the tube and have football players appear to jump out of the screen during live 3-D broadcasts, or watch the Discovery Channel and feel like I’m standing next to an African Elephant in my living room (sure to freak out Bosco the family dog if we could fit him with glasses).
The above parenthetical brings me to the real topic of this rant: GLASSES.
You see, this 3-D gimmick requires a new television, broadcasting content, and 3-D glasses. I have spent the better part of my life trying to avoid wearing glasses. In elementary school I ‘lost’ them on a regular basis. As soon as I was old enough, I switched to contact lenses. With each new development in optometry, I advanced to wearing my glasses less and less often – soft contact lenses by day, and glasses only at night, extended wear contact lenses worn for a week at a time, with glasses worn only while cleaning them, and disposable extended wear lenses that allowed me to avoid having to wear glasses during disinfecting-time. Finally, ten years ago, I underwent LASIK surgery. I’M FREE!! But I have this 3-D TV technology promise looming large in the future.
Vanity and convenience aren’t the only reasons I’m against needing 3-D glasses to watch television. I also hate the fact that I’m inundated with umpteen remote controls, video game controllers, and other gadgets to add to the clutter, to misplace, and to confuse. Add a pair of glasses for every member of the family as well as a few extra pairs for guests, and that’s a dozen more pieces of stuff I didn’t want around my house in the first place!
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Womens’ Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com
PACE YOURSELF
Ever heard the expression “pace yourself?” In my case, I truly needed to. Life was so busy. There wasn’t enough time for me to pursue my creative writing habit so I went for a weekend retreat with Nancy, a fellow writer.
We went for a few nights to The Pace House Inn, a bed and breakfast. The restful lodging was where history spoke volumes in the way of charming architecture and lovely antiques. I was inspired to the max. The result of the weekend was an ebook of romance and time travel. On first reaching my destination, I was immediately caught up in the stories of the family who built and owned the home a hundred years ago.
While staying at the B&B, I kept sensing the presence of someone named Ben. While I learned that none of the original inhabitants had that name, I came to realize that the Ben I was sensing was the character in the story I would ultimately write while there.
I found myself wondering what if… What if a guest at the bed and breakfast found herself in a relationship with someone from the property’s past who had come to visit contemporary times? Would he have a charm and sensitivity not possessed by guys of today?
The air and décor of the rooms where I stayed inspired me to write a story that showed that love can span generations or even a century. Inspiration can be intensified if a writer digs deeply enough or far enough in the past.
Cara Preston a.k.a. Phyllis Johnson (real name)
Cara Preston is the pen name for a writer whose work at Red Rose Publishing includes Pickup Lines from a Pickup Truck and Another Place and Time (scheduled for Jan. 14, 2010 release at Red Rose) Her alter ego writes a weekly newspaper column, does restaurant reviews and writes for national magazines. She has also published three poetry books.
COLLECTIBLES AS QUIRK AND CATALYST
Do you collect something unusual? Is it your choice to collect it or have others thrust the collection upon you. My mother once bought a creamer shaped that looked like a purple cow, and everyone decided, “Oh! You like cows!” Now, due the generosity of friends and family, her house is filled to the brim with everything cow: magnets, pictures, coffee mugs, bath towels, mooing ice cream scoops, you name it-she’s got it.
In fiction, this kind of detail adds some quirky personality to a character. But what a character collects could be more than just a telling detail or character trait. Consider the following recount of the life of my personal collection of salt and pepper shakers, started when I was a little girl, it gave me something to search for as souvenirs and something special for my parents and friends to give as gifts.
Over the years, my collection of salt and pepper shakers grew. It included a zoo of animals, including trout, horses, monkeys, pigs, and even a kangaroo salt shaker whose Joey pepper shaker sat in her pouch. Toast and a toaster lined up next to replicas of landmarks like the Washington Monument, gardens of tiny, porcelain shakers of ears of corn, apples, and carrots. My collection was a sight to behold. I carried it with me from my childhood home, to dorm rooms, an apartment, and two houses. Finally, I displayed it on a mantle shelf hung above the kitchen sink. I loved admiring the shakers each day.
One day, I arrived home from work to the sound of running water. I walked into the kitchen to find that the shelf had fallen and hit the faucet turning it on, and worse, had left my cherished collection of salt and pepper shakers in shards all over the floor and counter. Ugh… I felt as if part of my childhood had been shattered along with my collection. I salvaged a few shakers. And, my mother – a very artistic and wonderful woman – took some of the broken pieces and glued them as a mosaic on a bulletin board frame, so I have the memory of my collection. However, I cannot bring myself to start anew.
If this were fiction, the build up and loss of this collection might be symbolic of the loss of innocence. Or, it might end up a catalyst to set the protagonist into action, sending him on a quest to find replacements, to seek revenge against whoever might have caused the shelf to fall, or to invent better wall anchors. It might also be an event that foreshadows disaster on a larger scale.
Use your imagination!
I’d love to hear about what you collect – be it stamps, beanie babies, antiques, or art! Share it here. It’s fodder for fiction.
Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com
What Inspired Me to Write, Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever?
by Judith Marshall
For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to write about enduring female friendship. But it wasn’t until I read, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, that I was motivated to quit my job in corporate America and follow my dream. Reading about Vivi and her group of lifelong friends reminded me of how blessed I am to have a similar group of gal pals I’ve known since high school. They say, “write what you know,” so that’s what I did. I created six very diverse characters, placed them in a small California town in the 50s, and watched where they took me over the next forty years. It was a wild ride.
So inspiration can come from anywhere; from a book you read, a dream you have, or an accident you see on the way home from work. The idea from my second novel, Staying Afloat, came from observing an affair between the CEO and the Controller at my last company. Inspiration is everywhere. The key is to be open to it, to see it as impetus to write something, from beginning to end, not stopping until you’ve completed a first draft. And before you know it, you may have realized your dream of writing that novel.
For more information, go to www.judithmarshall.net
Judith Marshall is a author of Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever, winner of the Jack London Prize awarded by the California Writers Club. She is currently working on her second novel, Staying Afloat, the story of a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother who morphs into a sex-starved adulteress.
Fodder for Fiction Author Birthday Bash: JACK LONDON (January 12)
This week on the Fodder for Fiction Author Birthday Bash, we’re celebrating the birthday of Jack London (1876-1916). Spending the winter of 1897 in the Yukon provided the fodder for his first fiction in 1899. From then on, he produced over fifty volumes of stories, novels, and essays. His most famous novel is The Call of the Wild (1903). London’s passage (1907-09) across the Pacific in a small boat provided more fodder for fiction about Polynesian and Melanesian cultures. London’s writing on the subject helped to break the taboo over leprosy and popularized Hawaii as a tourist spot.
London wrote during a time when a new movie industry was born. And he was among the first novelists to see a number of his work made into films.
To celebrate the birthday of the great Jack London, I’ve chosen two quotes attributed to the him that attest to his way with words when it comes to the idea of aging and the fleeting nature of live.
“Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?” Jack London
“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.” Jack London
Happy Birthday, Jack!
Until tomorrow, best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Author of Smart Women’s Fiction
www.LLLeibow.com
Beneath the Surface of the Long Island Sound: How a (Once-hated) Body of Water Gave My Novel Depth
I. The Seventies
At age eleven, years away from reading The Great Gatsby, I associate the Long Island Sound not with the glamorous Jazz Age parties at its shore or the green light of Daisy Buchanan’s dock, but with these three things:
- Beginners, the level of Instructional Swim at Camp Pine Tree from which I will never in four summers graduate. Among the requirements for moving up to Advanced Beginners is swimming the crawl to a counselor while keeping oneself parallel to shore. “Crawl,” alas, turns out to be an apt name for my rendition of this stroke, as I end up beached, sand scraping into my bathing suit and hands and knees, the tide pushing me to shore as I stroke (flail) and kick (splash) with my eyes squeezed shut against the burn of brackish water.
- Jellyfish, the supposedly “harmless” type known as Moons that look and feel like congealed Vaseline when I’m fishing them out of my bathing suit and hair (along with several pounds of sand) after beaching myself.
- “Creeping Crud,” a parasite/fungus/rash/myth that counselors at Camp Pine Tree swear campers will catch if they do not shower thoroughly after Instructional Swim–whether or not there is hot water and whether or not someone has stolen my Suave Green Apple shampoo. Though I never actually observe anyone afflicted with Crud, I am certain of its existence, convinced it will turn me into a leper should I not adequately scrub the Sound off me.
Because after summer number four I stop going to sleepaway camp (instead attempting to learn to swim at day camps with clean, still pools–where I still don’t pass Beginners), and because my home is not near the Sound, I don’t think about it for years. Until…
II. The Eighties
When I read The Great Gatsby in high school, I don’t recognize the Long Island Sound that Fitzgerald describes. Fitzgerald’s Sound is safe, still, even “stagnant in the heat,” a small boat “crawling slowly” across it. Gatsby’s guests swim in it at night and dive into it from his dock during the day, none of them plagued by jellyfish or errant tides.
It is a romantic place, a site of longing, a body of water across which Gatsby stares at the green light on Daisy’s dock. It is a place for contemplation; Nick Carraway sits on its shore after Gatsby’s death, looking out at it and thinking about metaphorical currents–not real ones that drag sand into bathing suits–that keep us from escaping our pasts.
I decide I must have misremembered something. Maybe everything. Nobody in Gatsby catches Crud.
III. The Nineties
Years after high school, having read Gatsby several more times, I find myself working as a teacher on the North Shore of Long Island, the setting for Fitzgerald’s novel. I give little thought at all to The Sound, though it’s right there. It is but backdrop–the place where land is not. From the window of a car or a waterfront restaurant, it is scenery. Crud-less scenery. From a window, it looks still.
IV. The Aughts
I am living three thousand miles away from the Sound when I decide to set a novel on its shore, in a fictional third “Egg” that Fitzgerald hadn’t mentioned. Because the Sound is backdrop for my characters, as it was for me a decade earlier, I’m only concerned with what it looks like from shore. My characters sit near it, talk near it, look out at it. It is like scenery in an elementary school play. I decide the problem–the flatness–comes from not having seen it for myself for so long.
To remedy this, during a trip east, I take my camera (and my then-two-year-old daughter) to The Sound, convinced that if I can just describe the view better, the sense of place in those scenes will come alive. As I’m shooting photos of the water and gulls landing on pilings, and views, my daughter keeps bending to touch things washed up onto the sand: leaves of bright green seaweed, tufts of something maroon that looks like hair, mussel shells, a horseshoe crab carapace.
Which is when I realize I’m taking pictures of the wrong things. I’ve been writing about the wrong Sound. This Sound beaches things. This Sound contains an entire world I know nothing about.
When I begin researching it, I learn that there are indeed currents and tides. I learn that it’s an estuary–a place teeming with life, an intersection of salt water and fresh. For the first time since I was eleven, I think about what is beneath this water’s surface.
I change scenes to let my characters interact with The Sound instead of just look at it. I let it nearly drown one of them. And finally, it graduates from backdrop to symbol: like many of the characters in my novel, its surface belies what exists below.
(P.S. — In case you were wondering, my research turns up nothing about Crud. Nothing.)
___________________
Bio: Tanya Egan Gibson is the author of How to Buy a Love of Reading (May 2009 – Dutton), a novel about a nouveau riche parents who address their teenage daughter’s professed hatred of books (and the possibility that their community thinks their family “anti-intellectual”) by commissioning a book to be written just for her, moving its author into their mansion, and dubbing themselves “the Medicis of Long Island.” Tanya lives with her husband and two young children in the San Francisco Bay Area. She would love you to visit her website, http://www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com/, and share a story about how reading changed–or even saved–your life.
FICTION AS FODDER FOR FICTION?
Is there a line from a movie you live by? Or a favorite television show you and your friends or spouse always quote? In my real life there are a few recurring imitations of fiction.
First, I often share that I can relate almost any situation to a Seinfeld episode—and will often take the opportunity to do so, quoting the Soup Nazi’s “No Soup for You,” or a random, “You’ve gotta see the baby!”
Another example of fiction creeping into real life happens at my house, if something goes wrong or someone makes a silly mistake, the exclamation most likely to ring through the air is a dead ringer for Homer Simpson’s “Doh!”
Finally, fiction influences my real life with a quote from the movie Manchurian Candidate. When my husband and I were dating back in the day, the Manchurian Candidate was re-released in theaters. We went to see it at the Uptown and in addition to the assassination plot haunting us so did this line, because it captures us perfectly: “There are two kinds of people in this world—those who walk into a room and turn the tv on, and those who walk into a room and turn the tv off. Unfortunately, they usually end up marrying each other.” And as a result, I borrow this line when I want to turn off the television.
You may think it silly for me to mention these things. What does it matter that fictional characters influence my vocabulary and reactions to the things around me? Well, this is one of the factors to consider when developing a fictional character. What favorite books, movies, and television shows will the character love so much that they permeate his or her life? Maybe he could quote Monte Python, break out into a Motown hit every time someone says something that reminds him of a lyric, or relate everything in life to a CSI episode.Maybe she quotes lines from Harry Potter, or changes her hairstyle to match the one in the latest Sandra Bullock movie. The possibilities are endless.
You see, fiction can be fodder for fiction!
Share some of your favorite “you-isms” taken from fiction in the comments. I’d love to hear them!
Until next time, best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Fodder For Fiction First Friday Writing Exercise: January 2010
It’s the first monthly Fodder For Fiction First Friday Writing Exercise! Anyone who completes the assignment and posts it as a comment to this blog entry by 11:59 pm EST on January 31, 2010 will be entered into a drawing. January’s special winner will receive free download of the e-book version of Double Out and Back as well as a free special edition e-cookbook from the authors at Red Rose Publishing, Kissin’ Don’t Last, Cookin’ Does. The winner will be announced on the blog on Sunday, January 31, 2010 at midnight.
Look at the photograph below.
Write three short paragraphs about the photograph, one from woman’s point of view, one from the child’s, and the third from a third person not included in the picture. Have fun with this. Good Luck!
“Other People’s Conversations”
by Amber Leigh Williams
You know that scene in Becoming Jane in which Anne Hathaway stops everyone in the middle of a conversation to jot down a snippet of cynical dialogue? Austen fans remember it as a particularly snooty line of Lady Catherine de Bourg’s in Pride and Prejudice. Every author who watched this movie laughed and said, “I’ve so done that!”
It doesn’t matter where I am: eavesdropping in line at the post office, listening to the couple behind me while shelving books at my day job, catching up with family, getting the local dirt at the beauty shop…. Dialogue comes so easily to me because down here in the South, people like to talk about anything and everything—and oh so colorfully! It’s like a smorgasbord of dialogue possibilities! When writing my first western romance BLACKEST HEART, I referred to the more folksy snippets I’d filed away for such an occasion. For example, my father was raised in the country and he has so many wonderful rural southern sayings. While talking about my dance-happy grandparents, he said, “Those two have got more moves than a can of worms.” I got such a kick out of the phrase, when the heroine from BLACKEST HEART was sitting in a honky-tonk, I pasted it in to describe a young two-steppin’ couple. My grandmother has a funny habit of saying “Shut up!” in place of “No way!” And heavy on the “u.” It gets a laugh every time, especially this Christmas while inspecting her first digital camera. My uncle said, “And you can download the pictures directly into your digital photo frame.” She laughed and said, “Yeah right.” “No, no. I’m serious.” Her jaw drop and she blurted, “ShUt up!” We’re still laughing over it. And, yep, I can’t wait to find the perfect place to use it in my next WIP!
I loved writing BLACKEST HEART and its two sequels, BLUEST HEART (January 6), and BET IT ON MY HEART (Spring 2010) because the dialogue was so natural. The banter between the brothers, Keefe and Casey, sounded much like my brothers-in-law. By the time I took this device further in my paranormal series, it sounded downright authentic even though the scenery had flip-flopped to a more urban environment.
There’s tons of advice on writing dialogue out there. But the best way to make it sound authentic is to listen to the people around you. If you’re writing western, tune into John Wayne. If you’re writing urban, watch the Encourage crew from Queens. My personal favorite? British. This is exactly what my James Bond DVD collection is for. Dialogue doesn’t have to be a tricky thing. For me, it’s my favorite part of character development!
Amber Leigh Williams is a multi-published romance author, a member of Romance Writers of America, PRO Liaison and former Secretary of her local RWA chapter, and monthly contributor to Romance Writers United’s “Write Right” newsletter. Her western romance, BLACKEST HEART, is the 2009 1st Place More Than Magic Novella and her historical romance FOREVER AMORE is a top-rated LASR “Best Book.” She lives on the Gulf Coast with her husband and three labs. Visit her on the web at www.amberleighwilliams.com. She loves hearing from readers at amber@amberleighwilliams.com!