July Creative Writing Prompt

A few fellow bloggers and myself, have the last few months been taking turns coming up with a monthly creative writing prompt.

The whole thing started off waaaaay back in March, when during one of the blog chains, we had to write short stories based on a poem. Enjoying the chance to be spontaneously creative, and to also be able to share those small bursts through our blogs we decided to make it a monthly thing.

And now it's my turn to pick the prompt.

For the May's prompt Elana chose the subject of flowers, and for June Christine was into waves.

This month I wanted to play with the place where inspiration and music intersect. I often read on other writers' blogs the ways in which music inspires what they write. Many even create soundtracks to go along with their works in progress.

I, however, have never been one of those writers. In fact, I usually write with the kind of silence that comes only when a toddler is sleeping, as my accompaniment. I must admit though, when I read about those other writers' and their use of music, it makes me want to tune in with them and hear what they hear.

So, here's the prompt that I gave myself and that I challenge everyone reading this to as well:

Pick a song. Any song. You can listen to it once, or until you can't get it out of your head. And then write. You can let the song directly influence your writing, by playing it in the background, or you can let it become part of the story itself.

I also have others goals that I make for myself with these prompts. One goal that I have been trying to stick with each month during these prompts is to keep it short, preferably under a thousand words. For myself it's a good exercise in keeping my writing tight. Also, as mentioned in a QueryTracker blog post just this week, there is a market for these type of short short stories also known as flash fiction.

My other goal is to let myself experiment with different styles, and just have fun with it.

So, the song I picked is called Pills, by the band The Perishers.

Pills - The Perishers

Feel free to play it in the background while reading.

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She looked at him and thought of the man he had once been, and the man that way back then she had thought he would turn out to be. Of course, nothing had turned out the way she had thought it would. Not that it was all bad. No, some things were better than she could have imagined, and others were just… different.

He looked at her, and knew as he always did that he would be lost without her. Once that had seemed like a sign they were meant to be together, now it was just one more thing to resent.

At the airport baggage claim, waiting for the carousel to spit their bags out, they stood side-by-side, more like strangers than all the strangers surrounding them.

“It was a lovely trip,” he said now, feeling he should say something.

The trip had in fact been miserable, and they both knew it.

“It was,” she quickly agreed, feeling it would be churlish to do otherwise.

Gears clanked; the baggage carousel creaked to life, and luggage began to spill down the ramp, beginning its rounds.

After that they busied themselves examining every black bag that went by, and there were so many black bags, making sure that it wasn’t one of theirs. Too soon though, he plucked hers, and then his own, from the carousel.

“Thank you,” her words radiated the same weak warmth she presented to store clerks and bank tellers. She called it smiling with her voice. He said nothing, but gave a slight nod and an actual smile back.

The moment lingered, both of them believing this could all be fixed if only the right words were found. Or maybe they already knew the words, but simply couldn’t get them out. Either way, as other passengers took their bags and hurried from the airport moving on to other places, they continued to stand together. Silently.

“The trip really was,” he said at last, needing to say something.

“Lovely.”

They said it together, having found at least this little bit of common ground.

And then, each taking their respective bags, they walked off in separate directions.

She looked back, wishing he would too. He didn’t. His back was straight and certain, not betraying a single doubt. Turning forward, she picked up her own stride.

He looked back, but she was already gone.

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Okay, now it's your turn. Sometime during the month of July, using the writing prompt, post what you came up with on your own blog and leave a link back here in the comments. Towards the end of the month, I'll compile all of the links into one blog posting so everyone can find your bursts of creative genius.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Work In Progress Wednesday #20

OMG I cannot believe that I have reached the big TWO-OH in the WIP Wednesday postings. It's amazing how the weeks just keep stacking up like that, one after another. I guess it's also amazing that the basic math behind the passage of time is still so amazing to me.

Anyway, let's get to the actual progress of this posting.

First let me say that I am still working on revisions, BUT the end is near and I feel that Query Day (as so eloquently sung by Lady Gaga) will be here soon.

While I was recently away in Colorado for my brother-in-law's wedding I also had some time apart from my manuscript. In my last post I had pictures of my MS all printed out for my current round of submissions, and as you may remember, it was quite a hefty pile of paper. Since I told my husband that he could not under any circumstances bring his golf clubs on the trip (we were already checking two bags, plus a carseat and then there was all of our carry-on luggage) I didn't think it would be fair to slip my nearly five pound MS into our suitcases (especially with the added fees for going over the weight limits these days).

Although, last week I reported feeling sick of my WIP, it only took two days away before I began to feel some serious separation anxiety. To get through it, I played with my query letter a bit and started on my synopsis until the feeling went away, and told myself that as soon as I got home I would get to work finishing those damn revisions once and for all.

Except on Sunday night it wasn't my printed out five-pounder that I reached for, but rather a piece of blank notebook paper and a pen.

Yes, after months of being uncertain of what I would write next and feeling totally unable to think beyond my current WIP - I had a breakthrough.

Several years ago, before my husband and I were married, we spent Christmas in his hometown of Park City, Utah with my mother-in-law. In my family Christmas isn't Christmas without going to mass, and so we headed out on Christmas Eve for the Midnight Mass.

I think I've mentioned before that I went to Catholic school for nine years. I also came from the type of family that went to church every week without fail. What this means is that I sat (and stood, and sat, and stood, and kneeled, and stood) through many many many masses in my lifetime. And I have also heard a lot of homilies, and out of all the homilies that I have heard (even the one at my own wedding mass) the one that sticks in my mind most clearly is the one I heard during this Christmas Eve mass in Park City, Utah.

The reason I remember it so clearly is that the Priest began by comparing his difficulties writing that night's very important homily, with being constipated.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Midnight Mass. Christmas Eve. Holy Night. Silent Night. Bowel Movements.

Now many Priests choose to start their homilies with funny stories or anecdotes, but this one... Not to be a prude, or a stick in the mud, but this one was of questionable taste and appropriateness for the occasion.

That being said, as I was writing Sunday night and the words to this new story were flowing out of me, I couldn't help but remember this homily and think to myself that maybe this over-sharing Priest did in fact have a point.

Finally, as promised last week, here are some pics of my too-cute son all dressed up as the ring bearer for the wedding. And to my great surprise, he actually did make it all the way down the aisle holding the hand of the flower girl. Okay, we couldn't get him to do it without his pacifier (or bink as we call it) in his mouth, but at just two years old, I still think it was pretty impressive.

These pics are actually from after the ceremony while we were waiting for the reception to begin.




Okay, now it's your turn to over-share - please, tell me know how your work in progress is going.

OH! And don't forget to come back on Friday when I will be hosting this month's creative writing prompt. Elana hosted one in May, Christine did one for June, and now it is my turn to come up with something for July. I hope you'll all join me!

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If you want to participate in WIP Wednesday, simply post your own WIP Wednesday entry on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below. Or if you don't have a blog, feel free to report your progress directly into the comments box.

For more detailed information concerning what all this nonsense is about please consult the original Work in Progress Wednesday posting.

Feel free to also make use of the lovely little WIP Wednesday logo as well!

Work in Progress Wednesday #19

This weeks WIP Wednesday post is going to mostly consist of pictures. This is because:

A. I am so sick of hearing myself talk about my revisions and my book in general. Yes, I have hit that point.

B. On Thursday morning (early morning, and regular followers should have a pretty good idea of how I feel about that) I, along with my husband and toddler son, are boarding a plane to Denver, Colorado. The trip is because my husband's brother is getting married this weekend in Boulder on Saturday. It should be a really fun time (not counting the plane ride required to get there) and I will be posting pictures next week of my son looking like the most precious thing ever in his suit that he will be wearing as the Ring Bearer for the ceremony.

Am I still on point B, without having actually gotten to the point? Sorry about that. Anyway, I have lots of getting ready to go stuff still needing to be done, and so an abbreviated post mostly consisting of pictures seems wise.

So, let's bring on the pics.

As you may or may not recall from last week, I discussed wanting to print out my WIP and see it on paper as opposed to the glaring computer screen. So, on Friday evening after dinner the family made a little trip to Staples, and we did just that.

Isn't the little box they put it in lovely? I am totally flaunting it.

And here are the pages filling up the box. It looks like a lot of pages doesn't it?

And even more from this out-of-the-box side view.

That's because it actually is a lot of pages. 325 of them to be exact and a smidge over 100,000 words at this point. Yeah, one of my revising tasks will be going through to cut some of those words out.

I didn't take a picture of the red pen that I bought, especially made for marking up the pages, mostly because it is pretty much your standard red pen. I mean, it came in a three pack that cost five bucks (my whole cheap thing at work again there) and it's most interesting feature is that it's a "gel" pen.

I haven't actually used that red pen yet, except on my query letter, which I have been putting most of my time these past few days into, while I give myself a tiny break from my manuscript. I am really itching to start querying though, so after this round of revisions I think it will be time to send my book baby out into the world.

And how has your weekly progress gone? Make any major process? Hit any milestones? Or are you just sick of talking about it?


************************************************************************************<br>If you want to participate in WIP Wednesday, simply post your own WIP Wednesday entry on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below. Or if you don't have a blog, feel free to report your progress directly into the comments box.

For more detailed information concerning what all this nonsense is about please consult the original Work in Progress Wednesday posting.

Feel free to also make use of the lovely little WIP Wednesday logo as well!

AMAZING Research Methods

Time for another ride on the blog chain. Kat started things off this time with these questions:

How do you do research for your settings, your story and your characters' quirks? What interesting tidbits about yourself and the world you live in have you learned along the way?

My immediate response was, "Well, I don't really do research." However, being towards the end of the chain this time around, I've had a chance to rethink this while reading through the responses of the other blog-chainers (from Christine, Michelle, Elana, Annie, and Caroline). While many talked about the kind of research that requires paging through large dusty books with a highlighter, many others opened my mind to alternative research methods.

So, that brings me to:

"Kate Karyus Quinn's AMAZING Research Methods."

(Feel free to print this out and highlight the really good parts)

#1. Living my often random, sometimes boring, but always uniquely mine LIFE.

Yes, I count the very act of breathing as research! And this means that I am researching ALL THE TIME!!! With thirty years of experience under my belt, I have to say that I am getting rather good at this type of research.

Being an over-achiever I began this research right at birth, unfortunately my note-taking techniques were not what they are today, so some of the very early information was lost. However, here is a sampling of some of the information that during my first decade or so:

-Experience of having four sisters. Having the foresight to be second in the birth order, I was able to see sisterhood both from the angle of the being the younger and older sister.
-Experiencing Catholic school from Kindergarten to Eight grade.
-Experience living in a suburb of Buffalo, New York. Cold snowy winters, short humid summers, and a lifelong obsession with a losing football team.

Of course, as I grew older, I was inspired by Mark Twain who had held many different jobs and drew inspiration from them for his stories. With this in my mind I began my first official job at sixteen at a Boston Market restaurant. I stayed there for almost two years, and to this day it is the longest I have ever managed to hold down a job. From then on, in the name of research (and my need to have money to live and stuff) here is a sampling of the jobs I worked some for months, others for weeks, and um, one or two, I might have lasted only half a day. These are not in chronological order.

-Restaurant hostess
-Telemarketer
-Teacher Asst.
-Low-Level Office Stooge
-Waitress
-The Gap
-Day-Camp Counselor
-Night time Janitor
-Niagara Falls Tour Guide
-Asst. in theatre Costume Shop
-Factory worker
-Person who sits at the seasonal calendar kiosk at the mall
-Grocery store cashier

The experience I received during these jobs is more than what I list (or more often conveniently leave off of) my professional resume; it is also the different people I met and interacted with at each of these jobs whether they be co-workers or customers.

#2. READING and Internet surfing.

I am not a big fan of just sitting and thinking. Instead I prefer to be constantly doing something, or preferably two or three somethings at once. If I were an outdoor enthusiast I would probably jog and knit at the same time, but since I am more a fan of activities that allow me to stay in a climate-controlled environment, my preferred mode of entertainment is reading. I read books, magazines, newspapers, and whatever strikes my interest on the Internet. It turns out that there is a lot that falls into this last category, and that provides a good deal of my research.

For example, I read an article with the headline: "Mom Taught Her 2 Kids to Fake Retardation" online way back in 2007. I thought it was interesting, and might even make a cool story so I bookmarked it. The idea continued to bubble away at the back of my brain, and while I didn't take directly from this story, there are definitely traces of it in my current WIP where my heroine is a con-artist who was raised by her rather shady family.

Mostly I'm drawn to these types of human interest stories, but I also pick up little tidbits on the various writing and cooking blogs that I follow.

#3. Traditional research aka I GOOGLE.

Yes, there are times when I go digging into my brain for information, and my brain is like, "Um, am I supposed to know that?" At times like these there is no alternative but to Google. Oh, and I should also give Wikipedia a shout-out, cause that is usually the first Google result that I end up clicking on.

Again, for my current WIP, which is an Urban Fantasy, I had some demon stuff I needed to put into it. Perhaps it is due to all those years of Catholic schooling, but my knowledge in this area was pretty much limited to what I had gained during obsessive Buffy the Vampire Slayer watching. I ended up doing quite a bit of research that mostly consisted of me cutting and pasting stuff I might find helpful into a Word document. Most of this information I didn't end up using, but some of it did eventually find it's way into my story.

I also use Google Image Search quite a bit when I need to describe something, but I just can't get a good picture in my head. Sometimes it's something as simple as the exterior of a Jeep, but at other times I need to know what someone's neck would look like after they've been choked almost to death or what an eyeball that's been pulled out of it's socket looks like (these last two were problematic in the extreme since I have a very low tolerance for gore, but in the name of research I peeked out from between my fingers and clicked on.).

And that's pretty much it. I'm sure there are many more ways that I research without even knowing it, but since my son woke up from his nap early I have to go continue my research on how to be a mommy to a toddler boy.

In the meantime I'd love to hear about the different ways that you approach research. Is it a chore or something you love? Do you find yourself using stuff from your life, what you learn in books, or a mixture of the two?

And to read the final entry in this chain head over to Mary Lindsey's blog.

Random Thoughts For A Thursday Night

Why do I have a random picture of the Lady Gaga?

That is the question you may be asking... or maybe the question you're asking is what you'll have for dinner tonight. While I cannot help you with the second one, I will happily answer the first.

Driving home from where I had dinner tonight (After my crockpot french dip sandwiches dinner wasn't ready in time due to extended power failure, we went out to this place that has the most delicious NY Style pizza, and they also give everyone who eats in FREE breadsticks. I am a bit of a carb fiend, and so free bread before a meal is always a win for me, but delicious buttery and Parmesan slathered toasty breadsticks... well, that's like a win to the hundredth power.) they were playing Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on the radio.

If you have not heard this song, then you probably do not listen to your local pop radio station. I honestly don't know why I listen to my local pop station, especially since lately it either makes me feel:

1. OLD because I either do not know the music being played.

2. DISGUSTED with songs like that one with the lyric, "Shush girl shut your lips, Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips" (seriously I heard it, and I said out loud, 'You have got to be kidding me.' And then I switched to the Oldies station.),

3. Or else I just get SICK of them endlessly playing the same songs over and over.

"Poker Face" and Lady Gaga's previous "Let's Dance" song both fall in the overplayed category.

So, anyway, as I was listening to "Poker Face" for the bazillionth time in my life, and kind of humming along to it, I suddenly stopped, looked at my husband, and said, "You know the only words to this song that I can understand is when she says "P-p-p-p-p-p-p-poker face. P-p-p-p-p-p-poker face." Then my husband replied with something about the song sucking, and that was pretty much the end of the conversation.

Later though I was sitting at the computer, and the song was running through my head once more, and maybe it was due to the fact that I was reading something about query letters, but suddenly I was hearing new lyrics to the song and in my head it was, "Query day, query day. But you can't read my poker face, my poker face. P-p-p-p-p-p-p-poker face, p-p-p-p-p-p-poker face."

Now, I am pretty sure that those are not the actual lyrics, but the next time I hear it on the radio (and we all know that I will) I don't see any reason not to sing it the way that I hear it.

Work in Progress Wednesday #18

Working it. Working it. Working it.

That is what I have been doing this past week, and I am happy to report that I am now one hundred and ninety-nine pages into my revisions. Okay, so yes, my WIP is currently 336 pages long (and getting longer every day - oh crap! but that is another story) - so I do have a ways to go still.

However, the bulk of the BIG changes I needed to make fell in the first 200 range, and I think that things will (hopefully) move a little faster now.

And once I get through this round of revisions, my next plan is to take a little trip down to the local Kinko's and print this sucker out (With my last MS, I tried to do it at home and that was a huge mistake. My ink jet printer took ffffoooorrrreeevvveeerrrr to print the whole thing out, and it totally killed a whole black ink cartridge.). I have yet to look at it on paper, and I think that is an important part of the revision process. In fact, if I wasn't so cheap I would probably print it out for every round of revisions, but alack I am really quite cheap... or maybe just frugal?

In other news from this week, something very exciting happened...

I got to meet a writing friend, live and in-person, and we got the comfy chairs at Starbucks, and the toddler stayed home with daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, it was pretty much my dream Sunday morning (Okay, technically we met at noon, so it was afternoon, but as I've mentioned before I am not a morning person, and so I usually count morning as going until 1... sometimes 2 on a very lazy day. And Sundays should always be very lazy days, it's like in the Bible and everything.) the only thing that was missing was a Belgian waffle with fresh berries, real maple syrup (Mmm... the real stuff is so much better, although once again, due to my cheapness I almost always buy the crappy imitation stuff), and whipped cream (I actually don't mind imitation Cool Whip or the stuff in the can here.).

Anyway, I got to meet Annie, since she was vacationing in the nearby town of Gatlinburg, and realizing that it was close to my home in Knoxville, TN she suggested that we get together. And so we did. And it was great.


And there we are. I am in the one in the white shirt, and Annie has the sunglasses on.

So, that pretty much sums up my week. How has your week in writing progressed? Hit any major milestones? Or have anything else exciting happen?

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If you want to participate in WIP Wednesday, simply post your own WIP Wednesday entry on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below. Or if you don't have a blog, feel free to report your progress directly into the comments box.

For more detailed information concerning what all this nonsense is about please consult the original Work in Progress Wednesday posting.

Feel free to also make use of the lovely little WIP Wednesday logo as well!

Work in Progress Wednesday #17

Another week brings another tale of endless revisions. Right now I'm working my way through Chapter 9 of 29... so clearly I still have a ways to go.

Other than that I don't really have anything else that is terribly exciting to report about my revisions process. Luckily, Nathan Bransford - the owner of quite possibly the most popular literary agent blog in the galaxy - (Hmm... that sounds hyperbolic or perhaps sarcastic, but honestly his blog really just is that good.) was kind enough to post today on the subject of revisions.

More specifically he posted a checklist of big questions to ask yourself while in the revisions process.

While reading through the list some of them received a definite thumbs up for my MS, some were "Oh yeah, that's a problem I know about and I'm working on it", and others were "Ummm... I don't know. Now you're making me worry about this."

Some of the bigs ones that fell into the latter two categories are:

- Is your voice consistent? Is it overly chatty or sarcastic?
- Is the tense completely consistent? Is the perspective consistent?
- Is there sufficient description that your reader feels grounded in the characters' world?
- Do you know what your writing tics are? Do you overuse adverbs, metaphors, facial expressions, non-"said" dialogue tags, or interjections? Have you removed them?
- Do you overuse certain words or phrases? Is your word choice perfect throughout?

There were other ones on the list that I think deserve my attention as well, but these were the ones that really set my internal alarms off.

That's it for my WIP Wednesday. How has your past week been? And if you've checked out Nathan's list which of his questions sets off your internal alarms the most?


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If you want to participate in WIP Wednesday, simply post your own WIP Wednesday entry on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below. Or if you don't have a blog, feel free to report your progress directly into the comments box.

For more detailed information concerning what all this nonsense is about please consult the original Work in Progress Wednesday posting.

Feel free to also make use of the lovely little WIP Wednesday logo as well!