Write Anyway

Looking down the barrel of a weekend loaded with winter weather advisories on top of flood advisories (when they turn to warnings, I’ll worry) makes for some grouchy family members, especially when they wanted to ride horse and generally be anywhere but cooped up inside. I can tell already I won’t accomplish much this weekend, but that is ok because just look at everything that’s been achieved each day this week.

See? Take the weekend off. Enjoy a cocktail. Relax. I’ll be back Monday, but until then, remember to Write Anyway!

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TGIF, week in review, time off, relax

Thursday. Whew.

I like Thursdays…kind of in the same way Jerry Seinfeld once raved in a standup routine about being “next” in line. It’s not “hump day;” it’s not “TGIF;” but that lovely in-between day where the end is in sight, but there is still time to finish projects and plan for the weekend.

So let’s make Thursdays – I dunno – different, let our figurative hair down a little and check out what is going on in the world at large – and in the world of writing.

A story in a local-ish newspaper I try to read daily discussed the demands of a parent to remove several books from school library shelves. The titles are “Finding Laura Buggs” and “Until They Bring the Streetcars Back” by Stanly Gordon West. She has also asked that “A Time to Kill” by John Grisham and “Mick Harte Was Here” by Barbara Park be removed.

The woman has gone so far as to go over the superintendent’s head to the State Department of Public Instruction – and – it being a legislative year in the state – she also sent letters to several state representatives.

This makes me nervous. As a former teacher, the literature my students dealt with included violence, incest, gang mentality, peer pressure, rape and murder. And the scary part was not the literature; the scary part was that the students’ lives were usually more dramatic than what they were reading for my class.

So who is to decide what books are on which shelves? Parents? Teachers? School Boards? State Legislatures? Kids? Or do we go with a “rating system” a la Tipper Gore vs. Dee Snyder and do for literature what that did for heavy metal? What would that do for sales of books? But more importantly, what would that do to the craft of writing?

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censorship, writing, literature, banned books, rating system

I hate re-writing. Hate. However, like cleaning the toilet, it has to be done. The language has to be scrubbed, disinfected (?) and polished because no one likes to look at a dirty toilet – I mean – no one likes to read sloppy writing. Stupid analogy aside, it is a chance for the writer to take an objective look at her work without throwing up…or weeping. But maybe that is just me.

Since I dislike re-working a piece of writing, I have found all kinds of ways to trick myself into doing it. (If someone figures out a way to clean the toilet - but not really clean the toilet - without resorting to child labor, I expect email.) One really good way – especially when the physical act of writing makes me want to cry a little – ok, a lot – is to print out a section of the work as it is and cut the paper so paragraphs, even sentences, are severed from context. Then randomly rearrange them.

The ideas, descriptions and even dialogue take on new meaning, has different impact, when it is messed with and rearranged. I always see my writing in an entirely different light when I do this and it gets me over that hump.

Now. About that toilet…

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Hump Day, re-writing, re-working, cleaning, writing help

A favorite teacher of mine once told me that good writers, memorable writers must do three things:

1) Read
2) Live
3) Write (no matter what)

He told me many other things, valuable things, but I was in college and had important things on my mind beyond surviving his class, such as racing for the corner pub immediately after where I could drink Pepsi, eat greasy pizza and wait for the happy hour crowd. (What? It was all in the name of research. Honest. There was a lot to learn – to experience – in that corner pub.)

While I tried and still do try to experience life and write no matter what (a-hem…Write Anyway, anyone?) as my teacher instructed, I am quite sure “read” was first for a reason. Just look at the excerpt of Alice McDermott’s After This: A Novel. The prose is palpable because the verbs are so visible and vibrant. The language she uses is not overly sophisticated; I did not find too many $5 words in the excerpt. But verbs like rush, rattle, bent, flapping, squinting reach from the page and slap the reader across the face, then quietly tell the story. It is memorable. It moves the reader. At least, it moved me.

I am not suggesting one duplicate McDermott’s style, but it is important to learn from it. And while I have not read this entire novel (I will get to it), as a writer it is important to read other works in order to improve.

What have you read lately that inspires you – or moves you to be a better writer?

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move me, writing, examples, Alice McDermott, After This: A Novel,

Mondays are difficult for most people – getting back into the grind of the workweek, pushing kids out the door to meet the school bus, finding the quicker gated steps that slowed to a plodding walk over the weekend. Slipping back into a writing grove after taking the weekend off (What – you don’t take the weekend off? *cough* overachiever *cough*) can be about as simple as saddling an ornery bronc.

So since it is Monday, let’s get Back in the Saddle gently, carefully, like allowing a well-broke even-tempered horse to wander where she may down a lovely path, with some unstructured free writing on whatever topic comes to mind. Stay in the saddle for at least 15 minutes, and make sure the horse knows you are there, but let her go wherever she wants and at her own pace. We’ll take on the broncs later in the week, if at all. Those wild horses can be scary (insert-cussword-noun-here) if you let them.

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freewriting, Mondays, writing, BitS

Ever since I got over my all-consuming crush on Rick Springfield, I’ve not really paid much attention to actors and actresses unless they look like Daniel Craig.

More images here.

Wow…where was I? Right. Letters.

Oh, I occasionally watch something other than the History Channel that keeps me informed as to Nicole Ritchie’s and Brittney Spears’s hospitalization/rehab status, but I resent the fact that Julia Roberts will never have to work another day in her life just because of the way she looks and the movies she’s acted in. With that in mind, you can about guess that my letter to an actor or actress won’t format much like a traditional letter, but I’m going to give it a try anyway. You should too. Post a link to your letter in the comments, if you’d like. Don’t over think this one – have fun with it. It is Friday after all.

(PS - changes are coming to this little blog. I have some new ideas that should make Write Anyway less like an obligatory assignment and more like…well…something. See you Monday! And remember to Write Anyway.)

actor, actress, letters, Daniel Craig, fun

I’m quick to admit that while I hate politics, I find myself admiring politicians who spend huge amounts of time, effort and money to get elected to do a thankless and often difficult job. Local politics reminds me of fistfights on the schoolyard. State and federal politics just scares the bejeezus out of me. The amount of money, influence and control those elected officials wield, oy vey. How can anyone be surprised at corruption in politics?

For today’s writing warm-up, spend about 20 minutes drafting a letter to a politician – past, present or future. Take it any direction you choose: criticize, condemn, advise, educate or persuade. A good way to approach this exercise is to imagine your words printed on your newspaper’s editorial page.

letters, politics, politicians, writing, editorial, warm-up

To continue with the week of letters, today write a letter to a significant other, past, present or future.

Husband, wife, lover, confidant…this letter will be intensely personal, I’m sure. While I will probably post my letter to my husband on my personal blog, I will understand completely if you’d rather not post links in the comments to your letters. Some compositions should not be for public consumption, despite the fact that this is “just” a warm up exercise. Take as much time as you need, but try to limit your letter to one page.

letters, warm-up, significant other, personal

For today’s writing warm-up, write a letter to an influential teacher in your life. My draft is below – and even though it is not in the form of a true “Dear…Sincerely” letter, I think my influential teacher would appreciate it. If not, he would get to bleed “red edits” all over it –and in a way, I think that always made him happy.

When I was in grade school, junior high and high school, I never really had to work very hard to get good grades. Oh, I panicked over advanced chemistry labs and mercilessly crammed history dates into my brain on my way down the hall to Civics, but I seemed to do ok without too much effort.

It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized everything I had read, studied, experienced or otherwise absorbed up to that point was vital to barely surviving my grammatical analysis class. At that point, in my college career, I can remember wishing I had had a more difficult time so that I would have actually paid attention and not just floated through, trusting the intrinsic value of A’s and B’s in high school.

It isn’t surprising, then, for me to find that I didn’t come in contact with an ‘influential teacher’ until I was in that bewildering half-way, but not half-way-there point between my sophomore and junior year of college. I took a writing class, and met one of the best teachers I have ever known, before or since. Dr. B* was a different breed of cat. Though his feet were solidly planted in the old school, he was nonetheless very progressive. A desert-dry sense of humor and a razor-sharp wit made for interesting “red edits” all over my drafts.

I learned more from him in that one semester class than I did all four years of high school. I was terrified I was going to fail, despite my desperation to write just one paragraph that would elude his red pen and gain a fleeting yet supremely rewarding and hard-earned sense of accomplishment. At the end of the semester, each student was required to meet with him individually and present a written justification and verbal argument for what we believed our grade for the course should be. After my meeting with him, I was convinced I would be lucky to get out of the class with a D.

I took my sorry self to the corner pub and tied one on, thinking if I couldn’t purge the experience of the class by killing the brain cells that held the memories of it, I’d at least punish myself enough to, well, punish myself.

I went back to the pub a week later to celebrate a solid “A-” on my term report for that class. With that, I changed my courses for the next semester so that I was in as many of his classes as I could possibly take. Over the next three years (yes, I was a fifth-year senior), I dogged his steps to class as often as I could.

I blame Dr. B* for encouraging me to write, re-write and write again, smashing, squishing and swirling words on the page until they are in the best arrangement possible and then going back one more time and honing the message like a nervous knight would his sword before donning armor and riding out to battle.

letters, teachers, writing, warm-up

Part of what I’ve always liked about writing was tailoring the message for different audiences by using different ‘voices’.

Stop looking at me like that. I’m not suffering from multi-personality disorder a la Roseanne Barr, thought that may explain a few things…

This week, I thought it might be interesting to try to write in different ‘voices’ with different audiences in mind – and what better way to do that than to write letters. Today, for the writing warm-up, spend about 15 or 20 minutes writing a letter to a childhood friend. Since it is a personal letter, you may want to include specific memories, inside jokes or something special about the friendship that you value.

letters, childhood friend, warm-up

Friday – finally. Wow. This has been a long week for me: busy, frustrating, challenging, exhausting, infuriating, exciting, rewarding.

Bah. Whatever. It is done.

Tomorrow is Saturday, March 17 and I am looking forward to St. Patrick’s Day this year for a variety of reasons. For today’s writing warm-up, write about your plans for tomorrow, even if they have nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day. For example, you could make a list of Saturday chores or you could make a list of things you want to do.

Better yet, write about a St. Paddy’s Day past where you did something completely outrageous and out of character. Or you could write a fun little piece of fiction that centers on a St. Paddy’s Day past where you could have done something completely outrageous and out of character. We are being random – anything goes.

random, St. Patrick’s Day, lists

Today is March 15 and if you read or studied “Julius Caesar” at any point, you should remember that today is the “Ides of March” and we should all beware. Well – at least Caesar should have. That, or Caesar should have been more careful in choosing his friends (unless you believe Brutus was his illegitimate son, which creates an entirely new dynamic – but I digress).

(And it is Ides of March - not Eyes of March.)

Since we are being completely random this week, take any aspect of that first paragraph and write about it as fast and as long as you can. For example, take the word “illegitimate” and write down your opinions of that concept. Or start with the name “Caesar” and free-associate it with salad dressing…Paul Neman…Cool Hand Luke…etc. I think of caesarean sections, personally, and that takes me down an interesting path.

Wherever you go with it, try to write for at least 15 minutes.

random, Ides of March, Julius Caesar, warm-up

“Use the following verbs in any way you wish: racket, snug, green, spoon, boggle, snake … Verbs are sometimes a matter of opinion.” – The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood

I love that any word can be ‘verbified.’ It may not be standard use or formal English, but it sure is fun. Try “racketing” the words about in your sentence, “snugging” them into the perfect structure so that by their creative use, your prose “greens” and grows into something completely original, wholly yours.

Give yourself some time with this one if you have to, but try to use the six suggested words as verbs in separate, stand-alone sentences or in a mini-story at least three paragraphs long.

No matter how much you know about a subject, there is always something new you could learn or discover. Yesterday, you made a list of everything you know about a subject, or if you are like me, you dodged the topic and made a random list (not so very off topic, really).

Today, list everything about the subject that you want to know. (Idea taken from Monica Wood’s “The Pocket Muse”)

This might not be as easy as you think. If the subject is something you have spent a lot of time studying or thinking about, you may have to come at it from a different angle. This also might be a good time to ask someone what he or she would like to know about your subject.

See if you can come up with a list of 10 things you want to know about your subject. Reward yourself with some high quality chocolate (or what every cranks your turn) if you can come up with 20. Put a link to your list in the comments.

Update! I used www.bubbl.us to create this:

You can “grab” the bubbles and move the thing around so as to see the entire idea web. It made the “list making” less like work and more like fun - which was what it took to get me off my mental keister and get this done!

This week is a week of Randomness. All the structure from last week burned me out. While I understand the importance of routine and having a method to the madness, a little chaos can be creative, refreshing and inspiring. The ideas for this week are from Monica Wood’s book called “The Pocket Muse.”

Today, take an aspect of something you are already writing or an idea you have for a writing project and list everything you know about the subject. I’ll post mine later tonight.

Update: my list is up, but it is over there.

Despite my best efforts, I have yet to figure out this “write page” thing. Patience, please. I’ll figure it out.