Yes. True statement.

I love words. And to develop not only my vocabulary, but my writing, I have two "favorite" books: The Word Lover's Dictionary and Mirrian Webster's Vocabulary Builder.

Your mission, should you decide to accept is to do more than write words. You must learn a new word everyday and then find the perfect place in your writing to use it.  You don't want to be "laconic," do you? And as a writer, you certainly would never want to commit "solecism." Neither do you want your work to be "egregious."

Go ahead.  Be "audacious" and share your progress with us. 

Richelle

Here's a good exercise to hone your craft on developing memorable characters.

 Your character is in a store. It can be a grocery store, a dollar store, a liquor store, a thrift store, a department store, whatever.  Make a list of what your character is buying.  Or make a list of things your character "can't" buy. Do this same exercise for one character in several different store environments.

After you finish your lists for each character, compare the lists from the department store to the list from the grocery store or the liquor store, whatever.  Each item your character purchases helps to develop him/her into their unique, sometimes quirky personality.

Have fun with this one.

Richelle

Try some of these exercises to stir your own emotions:

Remember a childhood event that made you cry or that frightened you and write about it. Try to relive these moments through all your senses.  Was it cold that day? What time of year was it? What was the setting and how did the setting play a part in this event? Who were the others involved? Think about not only how you reacted in this situation, but how you "felt" on the inside, with queasy stomach, or burning throat, or itchy eyes, or numbness.  Let your readers get inside of you.  When you do this, your readers will "experience" your pain with you.  Not only that, they will learn from your experience.

This exercise can be frightening because it means as a writer you might have to re-experience something you've been trying to forget.  However, think of this exercise as something that will in essense "help" others see another side they've never seen. In order for your characters to take risks in revealing themselves to your readers, you have to be able to in some way reveal yourself.

Try the exercise.  You don't have to show it to anyone.  Do the exercise a few times on different events.  Allow yourself to feel. I think you'll be surprised at how liberating this exercise can be.

Good luck.

Richelle

But the truth is as writers that is our job, to describe something "old" and make it something "new." It's our job to take readers into writing they've never read before, regardless of whether or not they've heard the story. A murder mystery, wife kills husband, been done over and over and yet it never grows old.  Why?  Because the authors have found a "new" way to tell the story. Getting over divorce. Been done.  Getting over death.  Been done.  A child runs away. Been done. Terrorist. Been done. And I can go on and on.

Yet, every one of these stories can be told from a different perspective, a different slant, a different setting, a different ending, in a way that is fresh.

EXERCISE: Below are words we hear all the time. Everyone knows exactly what they are.  But now you have the task of describing them in a way that's never been done.  That's right. Never.

 cold weather

a dog's bark

silk

pencil

kissing

rain

sunset

television

tornado

socks

one brick

Take time on this. Close your eyes and imagine each item.  Or get the item and study it with your hands, eyes, ears, nose, taste, every sense you can.  Imagine something you can compare it to to make it come to life for a reader than cannot hold it or see it. Use that simile/metaphor in your description. 

Don't forget to share a few with us.

Richelle

I don't know about you, but when I face an empty page, it's usually not the beginning or the end that I'm staring at, but the middle. It is here that my story tends to drag if I'm not careful.  The middle has to carry on with the story just as if each page is the "beginning," as if each page is letting go of a little more information and climbing up to the ultimate climax of the story. It's like the slow unvelling of a masterpiece. When you finally observe the entire picture your critical eye scans each color, every curve and line of the background and foreground and, of course, the main scope of the masterpiece.  Nothing about the masterpiece should fall short of the "whole" picture. Every brushstroke has been important. No brushstroke was flippantly painted on the canvas to "fill up" space.

So, try this. Take your favorite fiction/non-fiction story/book. Read it again, but this time on paper, summarize each paragraph for the short story and for the novel, each chapter.  Then study your summary. Notice how the story/book progresses. See how each paragraph/chapter relays "new" but "crucial" information.

Now, take your short story/book and do the same.  How does it fare? Is the information you're relaying really "crucial" to plot and character.  If not, consider "chunking" it.  It's very difficult to chunk. I know. I've done it many times. And many times (and I mean many) I've completely started over, same characters, same story, but relaying them it in a completely different way.  And 100% of the time it has turned out to be a better story.

Have fun with this. Share your experiences with the "middle." It's always good to get different takes on different writing experiences.

To keep "your" life in perspective and yet still appreciate your writing goals, finish each day with a review of "your" day. List in detail everything you experienced, from seeing to hearing to touching and smelling:

1) The conversation with your neighbor

2) The telephone call from your daughter

3) The scent of your Lean Cuisine

4) A song on the stereo

You get the picture. Honestly review your day, whether you thought it was productive or fun or restful or boring or wasted, etc.  List ways you might improve on it tomorrow. Also, in this journal, list your goals, not as a writer, but as an individual.

We are writers, but we are also individuals and when we lose sight of that, it affects our personal and writing lives. Allow yourself time to live and to reflect on it.

Share some of those reflections with us.

Richelle

When a reader/editor picks up a manuscript, they wanted to be swept up immediately into your fictional/real world. Just as the previous "Beginnings" blog shared the importance of the "first" sentence, this "Middle Ground" blog tells you where to start. In the middle.

Below are a few starters for you to work with that start in the "middle." See what you can do with these and then create your own.

"And you expect me to believe this story?"

He had grown tired of killing people.

She peered into her rearview mirror at the black cadillac that had been following her for miles.

He lifted her white veil to kiss her and she knew she'd just made the biggest mistake of her life.

As you can see, all these sentences start in the middle of the action, not at the beginning.  There is no backstory, no foreshadowing, nothing.  Of course, you might develop "backstory" and "foreshadowing" as your story moves on, but then again you might not, as with thrillers and mysteries that keep you guessing every step of the way.  Don't give too much away and when you do give something away, do it a little at a time.  Readers love mystery even if they're not actually reading a "mystery."

 But then that's another blog.

Richelle

 PRACTICE:  Watch a movie, several times if you have to. Then in one sentence, describe the movie as if you are pitching it to a producer.  Do this with several movies.

 Now, move on to written material. Start with short stories if you have to and graduate to books. Do this with the several books.

For assistance, here's a great website:

http://www.kathycarmichael.com/generator.html

This form not only helps you to summarize your project, it will teach you "how" to summarize your projects.  Notice that the main focus is specifically on "Character" and not on "Plot." That because your character is the driving force of all plots, so keep your focus there.

And don't forget to try a few out on us. 

Richelle

 The most important part of any writing is the "beginning," not the end, because that's the first impression your reader has of your writing.  The very "first" sentence.  And that's what every editor will use as a deciding factor--the first sentence and no more than the first page of your work.  The ending doesn't matter if your beginning doesn't work.

 So, this is a great exercise.  Create the best opening sentence you can. But before you do so, make believe that this sentence is the only sentence an editor gets to read of your work. From this one sentence, the editor decides whether or not to read the rest of your manuscript.

Here are some awesome opening sentences to great works:

Judgment by Kate Wheeler - When Maryland Thompson dies he wants to be buried with the body of a twelve-year-old girl.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier - They murdered him.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.

 The Master by Colm Toibin - Sometimes in the night he dreamed about the dead - familiar faces and the others, half-forgotten ones, fleetingly summoned up. 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.

Get out some of your favorites stories and books and read the first lines before starting. Notice how the first sentence draws you in immediately.  That's what your first sentence, and especially your first page, must do.

Hope you'll share a few of your "beginnings" with us.

Richelle

 So share with us, if you will, your plans for your new year.  What are your dreams, your goals, your resolutions? What will be different about 2008. What will be the same?

And what about you? How have you changed? Or have you? Do you want to change or are you happy right where you are in life?

In 2007, what has gone out?  In 2008, what do you hope to come in?