Avoidance - Part 1. Who Do I Think I am?

 For Mother's Day, I got a gift certificate to a painting party place. So, yesterday, three generations, (me, my son, my granddaughter), joined other party goers to create paintings.

I do not "art". I don't draw, color, paint with any regularity. I get the art stuff out when D is here and we mess around.

That said, the two hour class was delightful. We each produced a sunlit underwater ocean scene.  There were 8 people in the class and 8 colorful wall-worthy pictures at the end.

It was so much fun that I had to ask myself, why I don't do more visual art-y stuff? 

Because avoidance is one of my real talents, I have a lot of different excuses for not doing things. Visual arts have always been hard for me. So, I understand my reluctance to indulge in them. But I avoid writing and writing has always been something that I WANT to do and do better than a lot of people. (How do I even have the nerve to say that?) And that brings me to Avoidance Excuse #1.

EXCUSE #1.

Who do I think I am?

Art is created by ARTISTS. Am I an artist? Am I? Well? Um. I don't think so.  Am I a writer? I want to be a writer. I have wanted to be a writer for the past 60 years. 

Producing stories or essays or poems or blog posts requires a level of faith that one can put ideas, images, feelings, into words in an engaging way. Who Do I EVEN THINK I Am to imagine that I can do that?

 If I just accept my unworthiness, if I face up to the sheer effrontery of my feeble attempts at composition, then I save myself a lot of trouble AND rejection.

This feeling of misplaced humility(?) is perfect for allowing me to avoid taking action. I am nobody, so I should not write that story or poem. I am a mere inkblot in the copybook of literature. 

WHY THIS EXCUSE IS POPPYCOCK

This excuse makes the assumption that all art is produced for the consumption of others. My two hour dip into painting yesterday showed me that the ACT of creating is enough. Even if no one else ever saw that painting. I brought it into being. And that is enough. 

AND this excuse assumes that artists, writers, etc., are preordained to those positions. The excuse assumes that there is a hierarchy to creators. Yes, some people do have innate abilities that are better than others. But there are a lot of published authors, with wildly popular books, who are merely average at putting words together. Their plots carry the books. Other authors produce simple plots but their fluid writing wins over readers. Asking, "Who do I think I am?" before I even attempt to write ignores the truth that one who writes is a writer, regardless of their talent or skill.

So I wrote this post. Hence, I am a writer.

THAT is who I think I am... well, for now, anyway. 

 

 

BTW, if you are looking for other excuses to avoid following your passions, or trying new things, stay tuned. I have dozens of them.

10 Ways to Open a Chapter

LBB wants to add "Things I Am Sorry I Did" to the chapters in HIS book.

The trend to open each chapter in a novel with something only tangentially related to the action or to the main characters is spreading like wildfire.

In the past, this was a rarely used technique to grab readers' attention.  Now, those tidbits increase readers' understanding of the characters, the action, even the tensions in the novel.

These "starts" are different from the titles, or warnings, that 19th century authors placed at the beginning of each chapter...i.e., "In which Miss Irmegarde Discovers the Truth of her Heritage and We visit a Country Church."

Here are some of the items that might run across the top of each chapter heading:

1.  Odd Facts:  If the book is about sailing, or mountains, or the sea, these odd facts may reflect that.  In You Go First, Charlotte's chapters are headed by odd facts that distracted her. In Honeybees and Frenemies, the facts seem to be about bees.  Makes sense.

2. Journal entries.  These can be tongue-in-cheek - or sketchy reflections of much more detailed events, then chronicled in the chapter.  OR entries from someone else's journal that mirrors or widely differs from the main character's experience.

3. Snippets of poems or songs.

4.  Advice from old books or advice columnists, real or imagined.

5. Items from a list - any list at all;  grocery list, To Do list, list of real or imaginary animals,  places to visit, skills to learn, etc.

6. Observations from a case study - awesome if the book is about illness of any kind - or about an exploration.

7. Recipes - or the beginnings of recipes.

8.  Quotes from manuals or directions -

9. Rules from games, or codes of conduct.

10. Dates of events, real or imagined.

To be honest, I LIKE these openings.  I sometimes like them as much as the book itself.

Look around for these clever hooks.  How do you feel about this trend?

Scraps

Today was a Rube Goldberg day.  Instead of moving in an orderly fashion from one task to the next, I started one task, noticed something that led me to another task.  Wait!  Here's how it all worked out.

I wanted to tape the baseboard in my office so I could prime the walls (1). 
But I had to hang up two jackets (2) which made me open the closet door.
Then I remembered that I needed to fit a large bin into that closet, so I had to reorganize the floor space (3).
The bed linens that I keep on the closet shelf needed reorganizing(4), so I did that.
By then, I had several items that had to be moved to the attic. (5)
That done, I returned to the office to finish taping the baseboard. (1a).  But some plaster was loosened in the process.  So I had to clean and spackle that section (6).
Remember that large bin?  There was a smaller bin on top of it full of books that needed to be shelved(7).
While looking for space for those books, I found an old steno pad.

Ahhh!
On the steno pad were notes for a story titled "Rupert & Ivy".  The notes were fairly detailed, including three questions and rhyming answers.   Did I write these notes?  Or was I describing something I read?  Oh, to have a young memory once again!

I searched for Rupert & Ivy online but nothing came up.  And Rupert is one of my all time favorite character names.  And the ending was very vague in a "to-be-continued" sort of way.  I wrote it.

That steno pad had another story scrap -  dialogue between a brother and sister left on a new England island for the summer.

It isn't a steno pad at all.  It is a treasure chest with pieces of my memory within.  This is why I have notebooks and binders piled around me.  I might find three questions with the answers in rhyme.

BTW, I got the baseboard taped.  Maybe I'll prime the walls tomorrow - if I don't unearth another treasure.

Out of Sync KBWT

This week is out of sync.  On Tuesday, I thought it was Monday -missed an appointment on Monday - sigh.

So today, I want to remind you about figment - a writing and reading website for teens. Which is the kind of thing I usually share on Tuesday.  Out of sync, like I said.

Here it is -  figment.com - a website for young writers and a great place to learn about hot books for young adults - 15 and up! Some are fine for younger readers.  I just want you to know this is a site you can grow with.

Sign up for their weekly newsletter.  Today, I took a quiz to see if I have ESP. (I'm Possibly Psychic - which is better than clueless, I guess.)  But, you can write fanfic to win prizes; enter contests of all kinds; learn about awesome new books, films, music and TV shows - all of which require good writers. 

Check it out and have fun. 

Story in a Snap Workshop

Months ago, we sat around a table in a nice conference room on Northampton Community College's campus and brainstormed student workshops.  "Why not have a workshop where the kids use their cell phones to collect pictures and create stories out of them?"  I suggested brightly - (or dimly, we will see.)
So the germ for the Story in a Snap Workshop was born.

Thursday afternoon - 2 days away! from 1 to 3 pm in Richardson 20 at Northampton Community College, Susan Petrole, English professor extraordinaire, and I, idea monger, will lead a story creating workshop using found objects and/or photos as inspiration to create original stories.  For instance, what would you do with that picture of chairs? Or this one?

Are they as happy together as they seem?  Hmmmmmm?  How come only one of them has arms?

Join Susan and I as we lead you in an exercise of spontaneous story creation.  It will be fun.  And we'll tell some great stories, too.

I forgot!  This workshop is free and open to older teens and adults.