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May 11

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A poem from my son in honor of Mother’s Day

 

One of the benefits of our recent remodel has been finding treasures as I put the house back together. Below is a poem I found that my son wrote when he was seven years old. He liked to create little booklets of poems and give them to me for special occasions–Mother’s Day or my birthday.

Books have been a part of my life since I was a young girl sitting on my mother’s lap, lulled by the stories she read to me. I, in turn, cherished reading books to my son when he was young. I guess you can say we have “book love” in our family. See for yourself:

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May 10

A letter to writers from John Steinbeck

Does starting a story scare you? Maybe you put off putting pen to paper because of fear. John Steinbeck felt the same way.

In a letter to writers, Steinbeck wrote:

“It is not so very hard to judge a story after it is written, but, after many years, to start a story still scares me to death. I will go so far as to say that the writer who is not scared is happily unaware of the remote and tantalizing majesty of the medium.” Read more

May 9

Creating high-concept story ideas, part 2

In my last post, I described what makes a high-concept story idea: one that grabs our attention or is a twist on the usual story.

In this post, I’ll share some places to find those high-concept ideas:

1. Your local newspaper. Whenever I find an unusual article, I file it away for possible use later. Example: Years ago, I read a story in the Seattle paper about an elderly couple who’d gone on an outing to the library and then simply disappeared for three days. Both had dementia and they drove around for days, trying to find their way back home. Wow! That, in itself, is pretty unusual. I could write a poem or short story about this or base a character in a book on this story. Read more

May 8

Are you a panster or plotter?

May 7

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Creating high-concept story ideas, part I

Recently, at our local Field’s End Writing Conference, author Shelia Roberts spoke about high-concept novels. Whenever I hear the term “high-concept,” it always brings images of espionage thrillers like John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or a complex, multi-charactered story like Stephen King’s The Stand.

But what I learned from Roberts was that “high-concept” doesn’t necessarily mean exceedingly complex. A high-concept idea is one that is unique, unusual, or stands out in some way. Roberts describes it as, “stepping outside the box.” Read more

May 4

Want to be more prolific and creative? Learn how from these three posts

As someone who is fascinated by the subject of creativity, I’m always looking for other perspectives. Here are a few articles I read this week on the subject.

Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in or that you’re, “a little weird?” Then you may be interested in this article, Being sensitive, moody and strange may be signs you’re a creative by Susan Biali, M.D. You’ll also see how important it is to follow your creative inclinations.

If you’d like to increase your creative production, check out Seven steps to take now to increase your creative output by Amy Neumann and Eliza Wing.

And in case you missed my post on Monday, you’ll find another idea for enhancing your creativity with the “What if?” exercise.

May 3

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Write to your white hot center

In my writing group last night, somebody talked about how as writers we often write around what we really want to say.

Think of your idea, story, or poem as a bright yellow sunflower or maybe a snow-white lily. Around this flower flits a multi-colored butterfly. He dances, darts, and flutters around the flower until he finally hones in and lands.

Writing can be like that. Sometimes, it takes me a while to warm up to what I want to say and that’s okay. Writing is a process of discovery. The key is in the editing after the initial dance of pen and paper. In a poem, I may cut the first stanza or even first half of the poem. In my memoir, the current chapter one is not the chapter one I first wrote. Read more

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